Yekaterina Kate Kharitonova
Computer Science - University of California Santa Barbara
2.5
Quality3.6
Difficulty32%
Would Retake180
Reviews32%
Would Retake
180
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
180 total ratings5
43
4
16
3
10
2
25
1
86
What Students Say
“Professor K is awesome”
INT5 - 5.0 rating“What a terrible class”
CSW8 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
62%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.26 avg changeRatings by Course
INT5
5.0
(4)INT15
5.0
(2)DS1
5.0
(1)CS16
3.2
(10)CMPSC9
3.2
(15)Difficulty by Course
CS8
4.1
CMPSC8
3.7
CMPSC9
3.7
CMPSCW8
3.6
CS16
3.4
Reviews (178)
Professor K is awesome. She really enjoys and knows well about what she was teaching. Mentors are also very helpful. Have open lab hours regularly to meet with Professor and mentors. Its a new class. Not hard if you follow the pace. Grading policy is more than generous. No curves. Can definitely get A as long as you pay some effort.
I do wish there is a C-- option for the course evaluation.
In my humble opinion, she is the worst computer science professor I have seen in UCSB. Just don't take her class, please.
Actually she is a pretty good professor and she would like to answer your questions patiently. As long as you put the effort in the class, you can get an A.
Although her lectures can be confusing sometimes, Dr. K is really caring, patient, and willing to help anyone with any questions. I really learned a lot by discussing problems with her after class. Besides, her exams were actually not that hard.
This is a review for the INT 5 data science class, not the computer science class. I took it my first quarter at UCSB in Fall 2018 when the class was new and I thought it was manageable. It's a great introduction to data science with very useful concepts. The class has several tutors/mentors along with the professor that are extremely helpful.
I really enjoy Prof. K. This class is co-taught but clearly she and Prof. Franks invested a lot of effort in creating a welcoming and collaborative environment for a fun topic! The lectures are well explained and as others have said, she is very patient and willing to help in person and on piazza. If you put in the effort, it is a very fair class.
I took INT 5 Data Science 1 and INT 15 Data Science 2 with this professor. It was one of the few classes that are applicable to real life. All materials were online and I did not have to purchase a textbook. It was amazing and I would recommend this to all students.
Great professor who cares about her student, although her lectures can seem boring and unnecessary since she sometimes makes the student do the reading but she is willing to answer any questions that come her way in her best ability. The midterms were fairly difficult but if you put in the work, you can get an A
Gives off a "New and eager to enrich students" vibe and she definitely tries and is good at explaining. Much learning comes from experience of homeworks and progamming assignments. Lectures are important for pretty much unused conceptual knowledge and because quizzes sometimes happen. If you need help, text and TA's are easy to access.
INT 15 Data Science 2 It's a very approachable professor. I think it is a great class for non majors because the computer science major is not required to succeed. I would recommend taking this.
Professor k is the best CS professor I have ever seen. She is very willingly to help her students.
She's still learning how to teach and how to set up the class. A very nice professor, but she should have gotten her stuff together before she even stepped into a class room. Not providing exam prep material until the day before is ridiculous. Additionally, she refuses to upload the topics/reading material before lecture and gives hard pop quizzes.
Her style of lecturing is really annoying. She will start off by telling you the wrong answer without telling you that it's the wrong answer, then takes a while to get to a simple answer. Also she's very unorganized.
My favorite class of my first year at UCSB. It's a unique experience and I'm really glad I found about this course when I took it last year. Prof K is great with heavy enthuasism for teaching data science. Course has clear grading criteria and Prof K and course tutors are accessible outside class. If you can take her class, DO IT!
One of the most genuine and nicest professors you will meet. With that, she is not a good CS8 professor. She makes concepts confusing and her notes are not well put. The labs are extremely difficult and expect things you haven't learned about. This is definitely not taught like an intro course and I wish I took it with another prof.
You can tell Prof K is super passionate about CS. She is so kind, intelligent, and understanding. Did her best to make sure we received the best grades possible. This is her 1st time teaching CS8, so it's really disorganized. Concepts in lecture are doable but labs are 20x harder. Go to office hours, go to lab, read the book, and make friends!!
You can tell from the way that she lectures that Prof K is very passionate about CS. Unfortunately, she is still quite new to teaching and it shows in her lack of organization and poor lectures. Despite this, she is very accommodating for students who are struggling and generously provides extra points and curves to make things easier.
She is really nice but didnt do a great job of teaching CS8. It was her first time teaching this course and it was obvious as she was very disorganized and didnt do the best job of explaining concepts in class.
Prof K is a nice person and she is passionate about what she teaches. Her lectures serve as a decent intro to concepts but the labs are much MUCH more difficult. I learned a lot more from brute-forcing labs and reading online resources than from going to lecture. Did not have any prior coding experience. Textbook used for HW. Self-studying is key.
A bit unorganized but she'll teach you what you need to know. Great professor!
prof K is really awesome, she is a real cutie ;). I've struggled mostly on the labs, which takes forever to finish and I did not know what I was doing. honestly I have no interest of cmpsc (no motivation) and ended up switching from FMS to econ in 2nd week. 82% ave lab and 77% ave on exams, still got a b+ so totally doable. emphasis on labs. do hw.
She was really disorganized and released grades really slow. Labs were a lot harder than what she taught in class.
I respect Dr.K's passion about the class. But her lecture just makes no sense. The lecture is little related to the lab, which makes it hard to understand the lad concept. Besides, she post grades of labs at the end of the quarter. You have to figure out the answer which you did nearly two months ago. Obviously she can do much better.
Prof K. is a real gem. One of the kindest and sweetest professors you will ever have. So grateful to have taken Data Science 1 with her. Any of these negative reviews must be outdated because she is really incredible.
Worst Prof I have ever had. Disorganized and unwilling to communicate. She even missed her own designated quiz time for once. Everything becomes so messy under this remote condition. Just avoid her for the best.
Prof. K's class was very straightforward in terms of grading. I had prior coding experience, so the class was a breeze, but Prof. K. really makes the concepts accessible for first-time programmers. She is very responsive to students' feedback and dropped a quiz that everyone said was too difficult. Overall, a fun class to learn programming.
Aovid her by any means. Disorganized and poor at teaching. Rather learn Python online than learn with her.
A really nice professor, very approachable and caring. But still, do yourself a favor, avoid her. I've never taken such an unorganized class. TAs have done most of the work. No online class, almost no recording throughout the quarter, only self-study.
She is extremely hypocritical. She looks kind and approachable. But whenever you did ask for help, she just intentionally ignore it. But Tas in this class are great. Avoid her.
I learned everything from the online testbook Zybook. She only posts roughly four lecture videos for the whole quarter! If you don't like self-study, avoid her. Also, we have a lot of labs :(
I had never written a line of code in my life and I came out of this class feeling like I was actually ready to write some real python. Since the course is mostly just teaching syntax until the end it also wasn't too difficult. Last week or so got a little confusing but besides that it was pretty straight forward and zybooks was only a bit of work
DON'T CHOOSE THIS GUY!!!! SHE TEACHERS NOTHING!!!! (There are no lectures or notes given) 100% SELF-STUDY!!!! (With a paid interactive textbook online -- boring content + practice) EVEN TAS ARE BETTER THAN HER!!!! THE WORST THING IS: YOU'LL TAKE A EXTREMELY DIFFICULT FINAL PROJECT!!!! GIVEN YOU LEARN EVERYTHING YOURSELF, YOU'LL CRY IN THE FINAL!!!!
This is literally the worst course I have ever taken at UCSB. Prof. K just let us learn by ourselves through an online system, and she doesn't give lectures. So unfriendly to the coding newbies. She basically just does nothing. She does not deserve the salary provided by our tuition.
She was responsive and kind when I thought I wasn't being graded fairly on the final project and she even changed my grade. You teach yourself in the class, she is there to help you if needed. It's a good class if you like learning independently.
Paying thousands of dollars for tuition and still having to spend $70+ dollars for an online textbook for an online class is totally unacceptable. The majority of the class is self taught through the online textbook. Practice quizzes are super easy, but when it comes to the actual quiz, it is completely different and significantly harder.
I've never truly experienced depression until I took this class. This whole class is self taught through an interactive textbook. For an introductory course, this is no where near the beginner level. While all other classes are in-person, this joke of a class is fully online. Asking for help via Zoom is extremely difficult and embarrassing.
She is a LEGEND! I face the computer screen feeling the malice from Milky Way and questioning my life choices every lecture/quiz.
Do not take this class. She teaches nothing and asks us to learn from an interactive textbook. The quizzes are all over the place. The final project is insane and asking any project related question is a 5% deduction of your grade. She posts final project late and does not tell us, and she completely has no idea how messed up her schedule is.
Hilarious schedule, she messes up the whole class. TA have done most of the work for her. She feels sick at the time the final project is supposed to be released, but she ends up procrastinating and not telling us. She guaranteed a lowest quiz grade drop but my drop ends up being a practice quiz grade. Don't ever take her class.
Grading not clear at all, very disorganized. When you ask her for help she kind of just ignores you. You get penalized for asking help on a final project that is blown out of proportion and way above the skill range of a coding newbie. Terrible, puts on a nice personality but she really doesnt care about the well being of her students with thework
literally does nothing, she assigns 2 quizzes tons of homework a week. you self study with a $70 interactive online textbook. labs get exponentially harder. the final project is very specific and extremely tedious. quizzes are graded with an autograder which is not generous whatsoever. extremely disorganized list of grades
She barely puts effort into teaching because has to self-teach through an online textbook. What a miracle! when kids can barely self-motivate to study for in-person, actual interactive courses. I would ask for help through the forum for a meeting and was ignored! <3 Final project is extremely tedious and practically impossible esp if ur new to code
She released instructions for the first half of the final project a week before it was due, and after I completed the first half of the instructions, she releases new instructions that make pretty much everything I have done useless and I have to go back and rewrite everything now.
Weekly quizzes on Gauchospace can have pretty unclear instructions and be at times superficial. CS8 is nothing special if you already know python, but the unclear instructions are frustrating. This is especially prevalent in the final project too. If you don't know Python, you'll mainly be learning from Zybooks. Lectures didn't seem like they help
She teach literally nothing in class, u gotta learn 100% by yourself with a 70$ textbook and do tons of hw every week. She has no plan for the class. she wrote in syllabus that she will drop the lowest 2 quiz but she DIDN'T. Procrastinatio on the release of final project. A student advised to make the add-on final instructions and get threatene
This class was extremely unfriendly to people who have no coding experience. Insane amount of homework, and I would go to all TA office hours and end up waiting for hours to even get help. The final project was ridiculously hard and beyond the scope of the class. Prof K basically said "don't contact me or I'm taking points off your grade".
Quizzes every lecture. Final was extremely hard and I submitted without even finishing because the course material didn't prepare us for it at all. Prof gave no lenience when large number of students complained. Asking for help results in deduction of grade. Lectures weren't helpful. Basically teach yourself everything, Prof wasn't helpful.
Whoever said theyd never felt depression til this class was right. Prof K as a person, fine Im sure. But as a prof? Absolutely not. Class is essentially self teach and every lecture is just a mini review followed by a quiz. Final project was a mess, instructions were being updated constantly through dead week, even up until the day it was due.
Prof K does not know how to teach. You study by your own, on a website called Zybook. Her final project, was a totally disaster. She released the prompt a week before deadline, but only a half-assed one. She continued to post update until the very last morning. If you do in advanced, you got to change everything. If you do late, not gonna finish!
The profeesor does not really teach!!!!
Basically no teaching. Always give instructions last second even for the final. Everyone suffers so much. The self-study website does not prepare us for the quizzes or final at all.
Worst class I have ever taken. I understood everything in class and textbook and still got a 28% on the pop quizzes. Prof DOES NOT TEACH!!! Her TAs are so helpful, but she expects that if you are struggling you are available at every hour for office hours. Lives and Russia and doesnt use email doesnt answer questions either.
The instructions that she gives us for labs, projects, whatever are always unclear and leave things out, which will ruin your code. When you bring up these issues, the response is always late, so throw working ahead out of the window. Usually gives us pieces of code to use in our own program and sometimes it's wrong. Self-teaching class
Attendance is mandatory, but attending her classes is waste of time. The professor never cares about her students. I have no idea why she can be a professor at UCSB.
Most work I have ever done for a class. Insane amount of work due and it's not the type of work that can be done easily. Many Labs will have you spending hours on it not knowing what minor detail you're doing wrong. A class that's supposed to be for beginners is painfully hard without prior experience. Knowledgable prof but way too hard
This class is truly atrocious. Lab instructions are confusing and far above the level of what should be expected from newcomers to Python. Lectures are boring and mostly useless. Class is excessively time-consuming and infuriating. Avoid taking with this professor at all costs.
Be prepared to spend double time on this class after week 5. No sympathy for assigning work and then throwing you pop quizzes for material learned the day before. Final is a mess with unclear instructions and a 5% grade deduction for a question asked. TA's helped tremendously but lectures were all useless info with random participation link
Worst teacher yet, she doesnt care about her students. This is not a beginner's course at all. Do not recommend with this teacher.
Genuinely the worst professor I have ever had at UCSB. She only gives you 15 minutes to figure out, write, and test multiple lines of code in quizzes. Her final project instructions are a mess, and references pieces of code that we have never written before, and if you ask a question on it after Friday, (it's due on Tuesday), 5% off your grade.
Most teachers just talk at you, but by having you use the book for the majority of the work it really helps you absorb most of the needed info. Most of the bad reviews on here are left by entailed kids who coasted into college with their parents money, and now are shocked that a real professor expects the bare minimum from them. expect pop quizzes.
Prof K really knows her stuff and does an amazing job helping her students learn. Unfortunately a lot of the students in this class think they deserve an easy A just for showing up and giving the school their parents money and start crying when they’re expected to work for a grade.
Honestly, as long as you pay attention in class, and know the bare minimum about computers this class is pretty easy, but a big part of that is probably because of how good of a teacher prof K is. Anyone willing to put in any effort should be fine.
One of the best professors I've ever had! I couldn't have asked for anyone better to teach me the ropes. Not only is she very nice but she smells good too! I wouldn't have asked for any other professor even if I could.
Not sure why all the low reviews on here. Maybe from students who are skipping class? Regardless Dr. K was one of the best professors I have had and would recommend the class to anyone looking to have a professor who truly cares
Prof K is the best teacher I’ve ever had. After taking her class I decided to switch my major from GIS to education to follow in her footsteps and inspire young minds the way she inspired me. If you don’t take her class you are actively harming your education.
Very easy class but you will still learn a lot
Prof K does really care about her students. This class is largely self-taught through an online textbook. From weeks 1-7, the workload is very manageable, but beginning in week 8, it was shockingly heavy -- literally felt like going 0 - 100. Labs in week 8 are essentially a copy of the final project, so get ready to basically do two projects.
Not that bad. She got rid of your lowest scored quiz, the hardest quiz, AND allowed for 2 retakes in a total of 6 quizzes. She also extended deadlines to help people. However, the final was extremely difficult for beginners and she gave a lot of homework every week. But, if you do all the work on time, you get an A.
Too much work!! Homework costs over 6 hours a week. Popquiz each week, never have enough time to finish. Final project is horribly heavy. She gives less than a week but I spend more than 30 hours. She published 'autograder' only 4 hours before the ddl and that's why I think she never cares about us and is constantly playing around us and our time.
Not sure what everyone else's problems are. Her class is a walk in the park. It's all basic knowledge. I think everyone else might be lacking something (common sense) but I digress. Homework takes about 5 minutes and the 0 help policy really forces you to learn.
The lecture is not useful, and the assignments are in a mess. The professor is not responsive and I would just go to TA's office hours to ask questions. Don't waste your time on the class. Looking at the slides yourself and working on the labs early is what I suggest!
An amazing teacher all around. Super helpful whenever you have a question and available basically 24/7. She really sets the bar. I’m thinking of retaking her class for fun next semester just because of how good of an experience it was.
An amazing professor with engaging lessons. The major downside is a lot of the other people in the class tend to be lazy crybabies that expect to be given perfect grades without ever trying. I feel bad for Prof K for having to deal with kids like this
Keep posting fake reviews, so funny. Terrible professor, should not be allowed to teach. She is rude and acts nice but i do not think she likes teaching. Points off for asking questions during final but does not answer them anyway. Labs/quizzes and project not like anything else. Lectures are just slides, does not actually teach.
Uses Zybooks for everything which is way easier than her project and quizzes. Time limit for quizzes is very low. Stay away if you have never coded. Class gets very hard and zybooks/lectures do not prepare. Lectures are mandatory and not planned out. No actual teaching goes on. Wait til a diff professor is teaching.
If you're struggling in the class you should just drop out. Dr.K practically gives you an A for showing up. I'm not sure what all of these negative reviews are about.
It’s so funny reading some of these reviews. So obvious that none of these kids have ever taken a college level course before and think that a real professor will hold your hand like a high school teacher. If you think it’s to hard, it’s not because of Prof K, it’s because you might not have any talent.
Really wish you had to verify that you are in a class to review the professor. There’s no way that all these people leaving the bad reviews ever had a class with Prof K because she is the most helpful and professional teacher I’ve ever had.
This is my third time taking Dr.k's class now. One of the best teachers I've ever had. Always there when I need help and very informative with the answers she's given. The GitHub to all of her test questions including the answers was a real help the second time taking the class. If anyone needs help just ask Luke.
Not the worst teacher I had. Would recommend.
Don’t be tricked by all the bad fake reviews saying all the good reviews are fake. Prof K is a helpful, caring, compassionate, and skilled professor that goes the extra mile to help all of her students learn all that they need to.
If I could choose between going to our local Disney California Adventure for free or go to CMPSCW8 for a full tuition cost I would choose going to CMPSCW8 without a doubt. I hate amusement parks but still this class is the most fun I have had in a long time. Plus you learn which is a nice bonus
My life often feels vacant and I find difficulty in simple tasks like eating and cleaning. If I had it my way I would spend the whole day laying in bed in a dark room. Prof K is a spark of light in the dark and gives me hope that as long as there’s people like her this is a life worth living. A lot of pop quizzes though
Some people will notice all the fake reviews WE keep having this problem. WILL professor k address any of the problems that have been going on in class? Either way the incentive for bonus credits for when we WIN pop quizzes is a good bonus!
Yekaterina is an amazing woman and wonderful teacher. She stays on my mind long after class and is a positive influence on my life. I aspire to be more like her
If you have to take this class for a major requirement, do NOT take it with prof K. and do an online course instead. This class demands too much for an introductory course. Pop quizzes and extremely difficult labs each week are very stressful. Dont recommend.
Would recommend taking online/community college. She does not teach entire class is taken via an online textbook. She also does not allow emails to herself.
Im gonna be honest with all of you, Professor K is not bad. She is a great Professor, its just us as students that we don't put as much time as we're supposed to. YES, I won't lie the final requires a little too much for an introductory course, but aside from that, if you do what you're supposed to and dedicate time, you will succeed in her class.
I took a screenshot of Prof. K and made it my background cus she’s a baddie.
Does not care about her students and very pop quiz heavy, final was unnecessarily hard
Anyone who has any difficulty in this class needs to consider a new major because you probably don’t have what it takes to make it in this field. Prof K was a good teacher but even if she wasn’t this class is a cake walk.
Prof.K' s class, as she claimed herself this ridiculous name, was also ridiculous. Every time I expected her to talk about something that was truly useful, she disappointed me. The final's instructions were also ridiculous and unclear. Every time I opened my computer in the morning, I cannot help to questioning my life choice.
She was so bad and try your best to avoid her if you have other choices.
Well, well, well. Where should I start? If I am going to be completely honest with you, I like her lectures. The material was easy, there were two make-up quizzes, many extra-credit opportunities, and she was a sweet professor. I can definitely see how people with no coding experiences can struggle in this class, but personally, I like her.
Tons of pop quizzes! And the workload is extremely heavy.
The workload is so unreasonable, takin us more than 7 hours per week just to finish the hw on Zybook! and the professor literally teaches nothing in class; she's very unclear and not good at explaining! The final project is extremely hard and we only have less than a week to complete it, with unclear guidelines and really unintelligent autograder!
So many pop quizzes and also hard! She didn't help students to solve minor issues! Even if you have a problem with accessing quizzes or fail to submit your homework, she will not help you for sure! I didn't know why there were lots of people giving her five points with no comments. I hope that was what the professor did. Avoid her for sure.
If you want to go through the hard times in college, go and choose her. She will give you a big surprise on CS learning. She didn't care about her students. When students complain about the sophisticated lecture structure and ask for accessing hw or quizzes, she literally does nothing and says, 'sorry, I could not do that.' Good luck if u choose.
I loved Prof K's class. There's definitely work, but fair deadlines. Everything has a week until its due. If ur struggling, its easy to go to office hrs and the mentors help if you come in with questions. If ur complaining, its bc ur falling behind and not keeping up with the pace of the class. Thats not Prof K's fault. She's so nice, I loved CS8.
DO NOT TAKE HER CLASS! RUN! Super unstructured course materials, very misleading. Tons of work for an introductory course in computer science. Lots of iclicker questions in class, very little time to do. Not helpful at all, very poor at explaining questions.
Unless she drastically changed the structure of her class this quarter, the past reviews are kinda tripping . The workload is HEAVY, but its doable. The assignments definitely help to understand the readings, she had a VERY detailed syllabus, TAs had a lot of office hours, she was nice, and the lectures were a good review, in my opinion.
Labs can be time consuming, but if done are free points. Clear and generous grading structure, not difficult to get an A if you complete everything that is asked of you. A bit unaccessible outside of class due to class size and demand but always a nice and pleasant person.
was not made for students with no programming experience.
I have never had a teacher try to set students up for failure before. The structure is so confusing you are guaranteed to miss several homework assignments in addition to the HIDDEN hw the professor throws in. The final project is awful, and you're not allowed to ask ANY questions about it. Never felt more abandoned. What a terrible class.
I wouldn't recommend this class for people with no coding experience. I have a background in Python, and lots in R, and I still fairly struggled with class. While the workload can be long and tedious, it is definitely doable in the first 6-7 weeks. After that, the content becomes intense and confusing, and the final project was incredibly long.
Everything you will learn in this course is from a website called Zybook and NONE from the lectures. BUT she takes attendance so you will waste 150 mins per week. The content is way harder than an introductory course should be. The grading was confusing and she kept making changes.
I took this course with prior programming experience and still struggled to some extent. To echo someone else's thoughts, I would not take this course with this prof if this is your first time with Python. Labs are, otherwise, easy points but the final project is excruciatingly difficult.
Lectures did not help with course material very much. Very unaccommodating and did not care about issues students were bringing to her
Class extremely stressful. Quizzes open in the middle of the day for only 15 minutes and then close forever and no exceptions are made. We cannot contact them directly. We are required to use Piazza. If we accidentally post code to the public forum instead of directly to the instructors we are threatened with cheating accusations. Awful Class
She is the worst professor I have ever had in my three years of attending college. She doesn't reply to emails and instead we use piazza which would be fine but even in there she doesn't reply back to questions. She leaves all the work to the TAs and leaves all the teaching to Zybooks which is our homework. She doesn't do anything as a professor.
One of the worst professors I've had, all because of how the course was structured. VERY tight time limits for complicated online quizzes, for little to no reason. Most of the difficulty came from trying to do everything in the time limit, not understanding of material. Also AWFUL at actually giving you useful info when you ask questions
0 time given to complete the quizzes, a very stressful 15 minutes. outside of that for the first few weeks it wasn; bad, if you stay ahead in the zybooks you will do well. but the final project was released a week late with many mistakes in the instructions, and the main system code instructions were not released until 2 days before the deadline
It's an easy course. However, I would not recommend this course to coding novices since the professor doesn't teach anything: the lectures are mainly Q&A. The textbook is very detailed and useful. Recommend this course to people with self-study ability. Don't take it if your study heavily relies on lectures.
The class material was ok, but the workload is heavy. If you would like to spend time doing all the work, you will be fine, sine you have unlimited trials until the deadline.
Lectures are mandatory with stupid iclicker questions. Workload is heavy for no reason: you need to attend two 75-minute lectures, 50-minute section, and also read the textbook and complete a bunch of activities. Lecture is very useless and boring. Class is very easy though.
this class was super easy during the first weeks but became unbelievably heavy on coursework starting week 5. There is several assignments due every week, some due the same day as assigned. Do not take this class with other challenging classes because you will have to put time into this.
She doesnt teach anything and expects you to learn from this online source, and lectures are pretty much useless as she wastes time babbling
Awful professor teaching nothing in class. Huge amount of homework and hard tests with limited times. Never answer questions after class or emails. It might be easy for who already had coding experience but hella difficult for who don't. She really beats your interests in learning CS. Never take her class.
She is a good teacher if you follow her.
Way too much challenging work for an "Intro to CS." Uncaring, unsupportive professor (whose lectures are borderline useless). She really doesn't know what she's doing, and it all primarily stems from the course being all online. Material is understandable, thanks to the textbook, but it gets pretty challenging towards the end of the quarter.
I am not sure what she is teaching during lectures because most of the time she lectures on something specific for so long but forget to cover other things. Zybooks is a little overwhelming. Also, unorganized grading.
absolutely terrible, would not recommend. If I had to take another CS class I would wait to have it with different professor
The online format of this class creates a huge disconnect between this prof and her students. She frequently disregards questions and collaboration is not encouraged, leaving many students feeling helpless. It's a very heavy workload without any assistance, and lectures feel useless considering the eventual difficulty of the material.
Don't get me wrong she seems like a nice person but the structure of her class is so confusing and hard. Most of the learning you'll do is on your own in Zybooks (online interactive book that costs around $70) which is disappointing because I'm already paying tuition for her to teach me not a book. Quizzes are extremely hard and timed unfairly.
cannot understand what she talks about. basically learn everything myself after the lecture. useless class but require attendance.
Just an FYI for all future students (especially ones who have anxiety like me). Don't let this "teacher" gaslight you. She will accuse the class of cheating at some point during the course. Unless you literally copy-paste code/actually cheat a ton, you're fine. Don't let her manipulate you. She damaged my mental health bc of this during the quarter
The fake 5-star reviews with C- and D+ are extremely suspicious and seem like someone is trying to gerrymander the reviews. She will not teach you, she will essentially offload all the teaching to Zybooks and proceed to give the hardest coding assignments to introductory students. You will feel abandoned at sea for you to fend for yourself.
so much work. worst class ever taken
oh my god dont do it please for the love of everything holy
Don't do it, trust me. I had a lust for life prior to this class. I was young and excited to learn some coding. All of that was sucked out of me.
she will make you feel like youre crazy. final project is so difficult for no reason. just dont do it. i wish i had listened to these reviews. please just dont do it.
Fake positive reviews. Class is unstructured and the material is way too advanced for a beginner class, especially with such an apathetic and distant professor. Don't fall for her scare tactics. Actually, just do yourself a favor and don't take this class at all.
worst class ive ever taken in my entire life..... save urself
Worst class ever! Way too difficult for a beginner, it will kill your interest in coding. She has a $90 interactive textbook teach you everything and overloads with timed quizzes and weekly homework assignments. Stay away!!!!!
Overall wasn't bad, just lots of work. As long as you stay on top of things, it is okay.
This class completely drained me of my will to live. Teacher is insane for thinking these are even remotely beginner level projects. She spends more time every day in class threatening all of us with failing than teaching anything. Attendance is mandatory but she just reads off slides. Expect to be teaching yourself with the textbook every day.
Prof was usually in good spirits and tried to incorporate a pomodoro timer into lectures so students would get breaks. However grade was heavily influenced by broken pop quizzes which would often catch students on semantics or typos rather than ever checking for understanding.
There are terrible quizzes every week. Attendance is required even with replays.
Completely disconnected from the students and what we need to succeed. Her lectures are terribly paced and cover very little of what she said is necessary on the exam. Cannot get a good reply out of her outside of class, so I recommend to stay away and take her courses from another professor or from another school
I've had Prof. K twice now (for CS8 and CS9) and to be honest she is the worst professor I've ever had at UCSB. Especially in CS9, 70% of your grade is based on difficult midterms and finals, and she gives labs (that take 10 hours each) every week on top of homework. Not to mention she rarely gives feedback and the TAs are not helpful either.
Does not care about her students. Unreasonable expectations for a beginner class.
(meant to rate 5 difficulty) $90 online textbook for coding and quizzes insanely hard. self study class with lots of homework and activites takes so many hours per week. doesnt teach and reads off slides. is so paranoid about cheating.
too difficult by far
She is not a good teacher. Everything she says is overcomplicated. She tells you something won't be on the final and then proceeds to put it on the final. She says she will upload lectures then doesn't upload lectures. She doesn't respond to student questions.
This class destroyed my interest in programming. The labs (20% of your total grade) take up to 10 hours per week. While it is clear that Prof K is passionate about CS, her teaching can be confusing. The exams are graded quite harshly and many of questions are things not covered in lecture and only briefly mentioned in the textbook.
lectures were not helpful, labs were too hard(on top of homework). She didn't answer to emails. Final was WAY harder than the practice final, with topics which were barely covered in class. on the very last day the grading turned out to be more strict than the usual scale and didn't count the extra credit lab which took us hours to complete.
If you read the assigned chapters and complete the labs early then the course isn't too difficult. The TAs hold office hours almost every day and to help hold yourself accountable you can go sit in the classroom where they're holding office hours to work on your labs (that's what I did). Prof emphasizes topics on tests so you know what to expect.
Terrible. If I could give negative stars I would. Doesn't respond to emails. Not sympathetic at all. Didn't curve and refused to do so despite being a couple points away from passing the class. Not understanding and doesn't teach well at all. I've had some bad professors but they are saints compared to her.
Passing this class is very doable, get started on the labs early, and read the textbook. Lectures are helpful, I don't understand how some people here say they aren't. They clarify topics in the reading and often show you how to do the labs for the week. Just pay attention and hold yourself accountable. Struggling is part of the learning process.
Very overhated professor, lectures were very clear and helpful and grading is fair. Labs get slightly involved/difficult later in the quarter, but if you get started early and go to office hours for help, you can finish them easily and learn a lot from them. One midterm and final, each will be doable if you read the textbook/pay attention.
Changed the course outline, having cumulative final instead of final project. Tough grader, will play word tricks and mark you down if you got one part incorrect. Unclear instructions and it's hard to understand what she is asking for. Strongly recommend to befriend your cs friends to understand concepts.
Her lectures do not line up with the quizzes and labs. Expect to spend 5+ hours on labs a week trying to figure it out. The TA hardly spoke English and was unhelpful. She will accuse you of cheating. You will have to learn everything on your own. NOT a beginner class. She drained me of my will to live.
I really liked Kharitonova! I think there is a lot of overhating towards her. Going to lecture is very important, and you will for sure need to go to understand concepts if you want a high grade. Labs can also be a bit strenuous at times but if you start early it is not that big of a deal. She is a very sweet professor
Had her for 8 and 9, review focuses on 9. Labs were important but very difficult; later ones took many hours to complete. Professor was a little quiet in lectures but explained material decently. Curved grades at end of course (twice, I'm pretty sure). Exams were tricky but doable; focuses on lab concepts.
Nice lady but there's so much homework for an intro class. Material is delivered way too fast and there's way too much work. Grading isn't really fair and not forgiving either. She's also really suspicious of cheating so be careful. Final proj took forever and was pretty pointless because it entailed a bunch of advanced features, you had to fill in
Absolutely terrible professor. Doesn't respond to emails at all. The amount of work is almost impossible and you'll be spending all your time on this class alone so hopefully your other classes are easy. It's also most likely she's using fake accounts with fake positive reviews to boost her score on here so beware.
Terrible. Do not take this class with her if you could help it.
Professor Kharitonova's CMPSC9 class can be challenging, but manageable if you stay on top of the labs and use resources like the textbook and office hours. I found unstuck ai to be a helpful study tool alongside the class materials. Overall, it's a rewarding course if you're willing to put in the effort.
Prof K is by far the best CS professor I've had. Teaches very clearly during lectures, uses I-clicker. Materials are structured to help students visualize codes (using graphs) to make it easier to understand the way the codes run step by step. Form a study group, make sure to do the assigned readings, and practice self-explaining concepts.
Great prof! She's super sweet and is great at answering questions and giving clarification. Strongly recommend if you're planning to take CS8.
Save yourself. She's awful at teaching. Midterm average was 66% ☠️.
Very! Bad! It is very hard to get A, even if you have made a lot of efforts in this course.
Truly terrible professor, you will hate computer science after this. Her entire course is teaching yourself from an interactive online work book that you have to pay $80 for. Re-took this class with a different professor and got an A+. AVOID PROF K.
I knew javascript basics coming into the class, so it wasn't difficult for me. She explains everything well though and cares about answering questions. Tests have some random curveballs and projects are structured wierd. The final project used a stupid broken autograder.
3 midterms & 3 projects. Content is easy to understand, very basic Python. Practice through homework and lab assignments. Like one tricky question on each quiz, but overall easy. Offers extra credit at the end of each quiz. First two projects instructions and criteria straightforward. Last one was confusing. Understanding & often gave extensions.
Very fair class. There is a good amount of homework and labs, but are really doable if you start early and go to office hours. Lectures are very helpful, she explains everything very clearly and thoroughly. Easy if you're willing to put in the work
9 labs that took forever and never what she taught. 1 midterm and final that were alright altho final was way easier. Can be a bit confusing when lecturing. She seems like a nice person but i just had a hard time learning from her.
Her lectures mainly focused on helping students understand the concept rather than learn how to actually do the coding because the homework covers that. She's a sweet professor and wants to help her students. Tests are by hand but the labs might be a little challenging.
This course, CMPSC 8, is a 4-credit class, but the workload feels more like that of an 8-credit course. The instructor's teaching skill is above average, however, the TA section is almost useless but still check attendence. The three quizzes and projects are not difficult. Overall, there is simply far too much homework.
When I would ride my bike to this class, I would pray to get ran over by those golf carts in order to not suffer from her lectures. Fr tho for an introductory course, there's way too much work and the content is overcomplicated. Prior python experience is helpful, but the assignments and labs are so repetitive it'll make you not want to do them.
The first two quizzes are pretty easy, but the final quiz was a surprise. It was weirdly difficult if you don't have prior experience in Python. The homework is more helpful when it comes to learning the content than the lectures themselves. The group projects will definitely help boost your grade. Sections are mandatory but unhelpful.
Just as previous comments, this course has so many homework. Besides, the final project is very ambiguous. Choose this course will make you final week more difficult since there are both a final quiz and a complicated final project.
I was aware of previous ratings but decided to take the class anyways and the bad ratings now make sense. Generally, everything was okayish (confusing project instructions) until finals. She gave a final during Week 9 and assigned a bigger project on the same week (syllabus said it was supposed to be released earlier), making finals week stressful.
Prof Kate has been hands-down the most inconsiderate professor I have ever met. If you're in the mood to have a final exam and (incredibly complicated and insanely belated) final project (during dead week and due during finals), take the class! If you also like not knowing your grade for the course, this class will be perfect for you. Godspeed.
....tough grader
Everything is good or on average besides the workload.
Overall, I went into this class with little coding experience but the teacher was able to explain the ideas really well. There are three quizzes and three projects in the class. The last project and the last quiz are definitely harder than the rest, but if you study hard and do the labs/homework you should be able to get a strong A.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
62%
Textbook Required
0%
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