Professor Burgin cares. One of the few that you can have from UCLA. Might be biased but I major in Math and most Math professors are not this nice and genuine. The materials and the way he teaches the materials are very organized. I was intimidated at first taking this class as I heard there'd be a lot long proofs (there are but most of them are not really that long) and logic traps (not really, he likes problems straightforward), but it turned out one of my favorites. I kinda like doing and solving the puzzles like these. Again. The professor is one of the true good ones. Homeworks, midterms and final are all very reasonable. As long as you care reciprocally about the course, it could be somehow challenging but you'd still be fine.

Due to the pandemic, the class was recorded throughout.
The class doesn't have a textbook so you don't really have to buy the recommended textbook (even if it is listed as required). The only textbooks are the notes by professor Burgin (he doesn't use slides).
For lecture, he does talk slow, which does give you a lot of time to digest the material. Also, he will stop after each concept and ask if you have any question and is willing to answer all question that student may have. I think that if you participate enough in lecture, he will remember you and write down your name and give you some extra credit. Office hours are immediately after the lecture, so keep that in mind as you planned your classes.
But this quarter was a disaster, his zoom was sometime down leading to him unable to give some lecture which leave us behind and he ended up using the first discussion section as lecture to make up for the lost material. He also skips taking question as he was late. Another issue this quarter is the disconnect between the discussion section and the material in the lecture as the discussion section covers material that is not yet discussed in the lecture.
Another issue is how long it takes to just receive our grades, it takes 4+ weeks to receive our grades which I think is quite a long time. Couple it with the fact that professor Burgin do not release solution for any of his exams/homework, so the only way is to ask for it in office hours. So we were unable to use the homework to prepare us for the exams.

I took CS 180 during Summer 2020. Before I took this class, I thought it was going to be a boring and difficult CS class. In fact, this is a very practical and informative course, and I think that taking CS 181 with Professor Burgin is the most correct choice. professor Burgin was one of the best professors I have had in the CS department! His teaching is very patient and meticulous. His lectures are slow and organized, and you are always welcome to ask questions. He will spare no effort to answer your questions again and again. He encouraged us to think about problems from different angles, and the class discussions were enlightening. You will have enough time to digest and understand the important points in his class. I appreciate this because I don't have to spend a lot of time after class trying to solve a bunch of tough problems. Sure, there was a lot of interesting content in this class that led me to do some extra searching after class, but you don't have to do that to survive. Compared with other professors in CS Department, I think Professor Burgin is very caring and responsible for students.
Once you attend every class carefully and follow Professor Burgin with your mind. You won't find the assignment and the test unfamiliar. Because of the epidemic, students may be living in different time zones around the world. Professor Burgin was very nice to give us a 24-hour window to complete the midterm and final. I highly recommend Dr. Burgin's CS181. This is really a lesson you won't regret. You'll learn a lot and won't struggle through the semester.

I took CS 181 with professor Burgin in Summer 2020 online. Due to the pandemic, many adaptions had to be made and the class was recorded throughout.
The way professor Burgin teach the course is quite unusual, especially among CS faculties. He explains things with remarkable clarity and patience. Oftentimes CS professors have the assumption that students know things before they teach them, making it hard to catch up for first-timers. Professor Burgin's teaching style is much more friendly in comparison. He would start off explaining every bit of knowledge you need to know and would be happy to clarify any confusion.
As noted by almost every other review, he does talk very slowly. I personally appreciate the slow pace, at which you get more time to digest information. And since professor Burgin covers course materials pretty well, I feel that if you pay enough attention in class, you would find that there's little to learn in discussion sessions. I mention it because there are courses where weight-lifting is notorious done in sessions instead of lectures, and thankfully this class is not among those.
As for evaluation, with thorough understanding of materials taught in class, one should find exams and homework reasonable. You wouldn't need to spend a crazy amount of time on outside study. I do find the topic quite entertaining, and I did conduct a bit of extra learning, but you shall survive without it. Overall, this is a frustration-free class and you should expect your grade to match your efforts. I would definitely recommend taking it with professor Burgin.

I took CS 181 with Professor Burgin in the summer online. He usually explains concepts and proof very clearly and is patient to answer student's questions. The homework was close to materials in class and the contents of exams were similar to the homework. I think in general this class is useful for understanding theoretical models of computers and Professor Burgin is very knowledgable on the topic.

Prof. Burgin is a very warm and sincere professor who will help explain as much as he can to help you understand the material. His homework assignments are very reasonable and his take-home exams were by way less stressful than other CS upper divs. I would say that hardest part of this class is digesting proofs as it is all very theoretical and sometimes dry.

Given the burden of online learning in these quarantine time, his class was very manageable and enjoyable.

Professor Burgin is probably the kindest and most sincere one I’ve had at UCLA. He speaks slowly in lecture, which makes it easy to understand. He also answers every question and is willing to spend time to clarify harder concepts. Highly recommend. 10/10

I took this course with professor Burgin a year ago. I knew I wanted to take it with him because I had taken cs180 with him and I liked the overall experience in that class. As many people mentioned, he gives extra credits to students who participate in the lecture. To participate in the lecture, all you need to do is to answer questions in class. Those questions aren't always difficult. Since many people try to earn extra credits, it can sometimes get a bit competitive (you need to be very quick to raise your hand or someone else will answer before you). But he's fair and tries to give everyone the opportunity to get some extra credits. If many people raise their hands, he would choose a student who hasn't earned any point yet. So if you're going to take his class, try to participate in lectures and get some extra credits. I think it's a good incentive because you actually review and preview materials more often so that you can answer questions in class. At least that's what I did. Another thing that's worth mentioning is that he really cares about his students, especially if you show that you're willing to learn. Go to his office hour and ask questions. He's extremely nice and kind and would use as much time as he has to explain things to you. His office hour was especially helpful when you stuck on homework. Sometimes I get stressed when a homework question is not clear on what it's asking. But if you go to his office hour, he clarifies everything in details so you don't need to spend unnecessary time trying to figure out what a question is asking. Just go to office hour and he'll help you a lot. If you took cs180 with him, I think this class is operated pretty much the same and you can expect a similar experience in this class. If you haven't taken his class before, you should take it because I'm sure you'll learn a lot from him and you'll like him. He may not be a type of lecturer who makes a very organized and pleasant-to-look-at kind of powerpoint for lectures and upload it on ccle. But I think if you attend every lecture and take notes, you should be really fine. His exams don't cover things he doesn't mention in class, which I think is very fair. So attend the lecture and pay attention to what he says/writes on the board, and you'll do well on the exams. For the final grade, I think if you attend class, do homework, and go to office hours sometimes, you will be just fine. Good luck!

Not sure why there's so many 180 reviews here, and I can't say anything about how he was for 180, but for 181, I learned quite a bit from taking his class. The material itself could be dry and theoretical at times, which was challenging for many people in the class; however, he speaks very slowly, giving students more time to process information, and is happy to answer any questions people may have to make sure that the material is clear.

In terms of grading, he grades on a straight scale, where if you total 90% or over, you get an A, 75-89 is a B, 50-74 is a C, etc. with 30% homework, 30% midterm, and 40% final. Getting an A in the class is a bit tricky, but he offers extra points for students who are willing to answer the questions that he poses during lecture, which is another incentive to pay attention in lecture. As he often says, there is no penalty for getting questions wrong, so there really isn't any harm in trying, and getting extra points can go a long way towards boosting grades, as each extra point is one percent added to your grade. Most people who put in at least some effort throughout the quarter could get around 5 extra points, which meant that they effectively only needed an 85, rather than a 90, to get an A in the class, so definitely try for them.

The homeworks and exams require proofs. Even if the problem doesn't explicitly say to prove something, the graders generally expect you to provide some sort of proof, (or justification) or they will take points off, so be wary of that. If you don't get the score you feel you deserve, you can go talk to him after class or during office hours, and he's very reasonable about deciding whether to award credit where it should be earned. Both the midterm and the final were open notes, (only handwritten) so be sure to take notes during class by hand rather than on a computer so that you save yourself the trouble of having to transcribe all your computerized notes to a notebook later on.

The midterm and final were fairly straightforward if you payed attention in class, but for those who didn't do well on the midterm, they were given the option of retaking it, with their final score being capped at 93, the highest midterm score in the class. If you didn't do well, definitely be aware that this is a opportunity that exists; I know people who went from a 40 all the way up to a 93 from this.

All in all, I learned quite a bit from the class; while some material might be hard to understand initially, he's very open to questions and seems to genuinely care about making sure we understand the material. If you're worried about grading, just be aware of extra points, a midterm retake opportunity, and the ability to discuss grading with him if points were unfairly taken off, (as happened to me on one occasion) and getting at least a B should be fairly straightforward.

I took CS180 with Professor Burgin. He often speaks slow but this can be a good thing as it becomes relatively easier to follow his lecture on algorithms, one of the harder computer science classes. Lectures consists mainly of proofs for certain algorithms. Asking questions in class is easy and the professor is always willing to answer all your questions. However, the professor does not go over example problems in class, you have to go to discussion for that. The class consists of 3 homeworks, each worth 10%, 1 midterm, 30% and 1 final 40%. The homeworks do not take too much time but it is very hard to score full marks on them as you have to be very thorough in your explanations. Midterm and final are not too hard and are similar to the homeworks. If you are able to do all the homeworks on your own and understand the material in the course, you should do well on the tests. I got an A on this class but I did have to study a lot.