Professor

Paul Eggert

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3.0
Overall Ratings
Based on 332 Users
Easiness 1.6 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Workload 1.7 / 5 How light the workload is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Clarity 3.0 / 5 How clear the professor is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Helpfulness 3.1 / 5 How helpful the professor is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

Reviews (332)

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Dec. 2, 2019
Quarter: Fall 2019
Grade: N/A

I suspect that this course was designed to make people who aren't 100% invested in cs quit the major. Just get this course over with ASAP.

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COM SCI 97
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
July 2, 2020
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: N/A

I wrote the following when people asked me for my opinion on CS 97 vs 35L. So this may not be a pure review per se but more like a comparison with 35L.

Disclaimer: I am someone who came into UCLA with a healthy amount of programming experience in C/C++ and some experience working with the Linux/Unix terminal. That said I had little to no experience with high-level scripting languages like Python or building web apps using JavaScript/node etc. I took CS 97 as an online class during Spring 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic so can say more about that but I will try to compare it with 35L as best I can. I may have missed some (or many) points here. Consult academic counselors/other students for more opinions.

First, some similarities between the classes and some advice for them:

1. Eggert is in charge. He writes the assignments and exams. Exams are typical Eggert exams - brutal with low averages. More on this later.
2. They are intended to teach you practical skills for software development - comfort with the Linux terminal, version control (git), scripting, etc.
3. TAs/LAs are your saviors. All of them were AMAZING this quarter. It is in your best interest to seek their help as soon and as often as possible.
4. There is the generous late policy of 2^(n-1) points deducted for n days late (iirc)
5. Exams are open book, open note and if taking online, open computer.
6. You are largely on your own for learning stuff outside the syllabus which, bear in mind, WILL be required for assignments/projects(CS 97) - this is a radical departure from CS 31-33 where you are taught everything and guided almost entirely (if you need it) for all assignments/homework. Not here - time to wake up and smell the coffee. These classes will significantly improve your ability to learn independently. Google and Linux man pages are your best friends.

Here are the MINOR differences between the 2 classes:

1. 35L is a 3 unit course, 97 is a 4 unit course (you must take it for 4 units if you want to apply credit towards 35L)
2. 35L is requires 4 hours of lab every week, 97 is a full course requiring 6 hours per week - 4 hours of lecture + 2 hours of discussion (the 2 extra hours may be a major difference for some people)

Here are the MAJOR differences:

Grading: 35L has 10 programming/homework assignments each weighted 5% (total 50%) and a final exam worth 50%.
97 has 4 programming/homework assignments which count for 5% total, 2 midterms worth 10% each, a final worth 23% and a project worth 50%. The remaining grade is made up of stuff like LA feedback surveys, class evaluation, etc.

Lectures: 35L is entirely TA-led. For 97, Eggert delivers 4 hours of lecture every week on various topics. More on this below.

Project: 97 has a project requirement (the name of the course is Software Construction Projects) whereas 35L does not . This project is half of your course grade and a major reason this class was introduced in the first place. We had to make something with a client-server architecture and almost everyone opted to build web/mobile apps with node/React. There were groups of 2,3,4 and even 5 people.

Now I will share my opinion on CS 97:

*Pros:*

Lectures: Gotta give credit where credit is due. Eggert is a LEGEND. As a lecturer, he is simply brilliant. Lectures mostly cover shell commands, file systems, Emacs, git, Python, client-server theory, C programming and debugging, etc. along with the history and philosophy of how these techniques came into play. Keep in mind I am someone who is usually irregular with attending lectures but I made it a point to watch and absorb every Eggert lecture and felt it was worth it. In my opinion, this is a major advantage of 97 over 35L which is known to be a broken class for lacking a teaching component like this.

Project: Even though I did not enjoy it too much personally, I’m sure I’m an exception here. The project experience was a huge plus for most people. A lot of people made a lot of awesome stuff. A good learning experience on how to build a large piece of software (much larger than CS 32 Project 3), web development, collaboration with team members, using git/GitHub and solving problems. Also, it’s relatively straightforward to score points so you can secure 50% of your grade if you don’t mess up simple instructions. You also get something to put on your resumé.

Assignments are worth less: I think 3 of the 4 assignments we had were also in 35L and these assignments can be hard. Fortunately, they aren’t worth much in 97 so you need not stress over them. Caveat: a good chunk (say around 30%) of exam questions were rooted in the assignments. So doing them can help you after all. But knowing how to do them may be sufficient for exams instead of stressing over meeting a deadline.

Variety of topics covered: The assignments and project requirements introduce you to a wider variety of material than 35L. Last time I checked, topics like client-server theory, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, React are not covered in 35L but I may be wrong.

*Cons:*

Exams: 97 has two more exams than 35L. Eggert exams are some of the most stressful ones in our CS curriculum. The exams are based largely on the lectures and assignments so you can sort of prepare for them and in an online quarter, the exams are open computer but a midterm is a midterm and I’d rather not have one than have one. But then these exams are what allow them to weigh the assignments at only 5%; also, if you somehow manage to do well (read: better than most other people) on them, you’re almost guaranteed an A since most people get identical grades for the other components. So I guess with exams, it goes both ways. I also feel the exams were fair - they related to the lectures/assignments and covered the objective of the course as a whole.

Assignments: The lectures DO NOT help with the assignments. We covered topics needed for assignments in lecture after the assignment was due. Assignments can put you in a tricky situation. They are medium-long time consuming and worth 0.75% or 1% max. So you may decide to skip them but then the thought of losing those points may linger in your head. Also, as mentioned above, doing the assignments is helpful for exams, so spending those hours may be worth it. YMMV.

Preparation for Upper Divs: I am only speaking from my experience of taking CS 111 so far, this may not be true. Almost all of 35L’s assignments are text editors, Python, C programming, scripting and debugging. This is not the case with CS 97 which covers those topics but not at the same level of depth. Problem is, mastering these techniques is essential for success in upper divs. For example, I struggled much more with Project 0 of CS 111 than I would have had I taken 35L. This point is open to discussion though, someone with more upper div experience could comment better.

Workload: Looking at the course websites, the workload for CS 97 seems heavier than 35L but since I haven’t taken 35L, I cannot comment on this accurately.

TL;DR / Overall Verdict:
Go for CS 97 if you like awesome lectures on CS and really want the project experience. The lectures and project will most likely serve you well in the long run. Also, if you are good at taking exams and have good intuition for things, it might be easier for you to get an A since you can use your intuition to convince the graders.
On the other hand, take CS 35L if you are someone who loves C programming, the Linux terminal, systems programming and someone who lives and dies by the command line. It will prepare you better for upper division classes (CS 111 at least) and help you master command-line tools better.
If I could go back and make a choice again, I would pick 35L since I fall in the latter category and didn’t enjoy web development a lot. I liked CS 97 though, it wasn’t boring or bad in any sense and I ended up learning a lot. But that is just a personal take. Hope this helps.

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COM SCI 35L
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Dec. 28, 2021
Quarter: Fall 2021
Grade: A

Class is difficult and takes up more time than any previous class but is somewhat manageable. Class is graded on a curve and the average grade is around a B+ (maybe B or A-). This class teaches you a lot and gets you up to speed with actual software development.

To anyone confused about previous years' reviews, CS35L used to have lectures given by TAs instead of Eggert and more homeworks, and was much more difficult and chaotic. If you want more relevant reviews, take a look at CS97 from Spring 2020 onward, which was like the beta to the current 35L.

The main topics covered were Emacs (text editor), Unix, Shell/Bash Scripting, Lisp, Python, C, and Git. React and JavaScript were briefly covered in a lecture but were essential for one assignment and the entire final project. If you've never used React, knowing a little HTML/CSS/JS will help a lot.

Lectures/Homeworks: Eggert's lectures are a lot more theoretical and only cover a little syntax. You need to look up a lot of stuff for homeworks and teach yourself but you’ll learn a lot. Lectures are pretty interesting and I enjoyed them. The late penalty is pretty generous (only 1% off for 1 day late. 2^(N-1)% off for N days late). 3 or more (outta 6) of the homeworks were given extended deadlines. Homeworks can take up many hours.

Midterm and final are difficult and much different to traditional tests. You can't really study for them that much except for doing the practice tests. Many questions are open-ended and require you to understand instead of regurgitate. Some questions are pretty obscure/random. The tests are unlimited open-note, but extremely detailed notes on lectures only help on getting maybe an extra 5%. And don't leave any question blank. You will get some partial credit even if it's completely wrong.

For the final project, most people make a web app with React. Getting a good group where everyone does their fair share is crucial to not spending too much time on it. Your group presents to a discussion at the end of week 10. The project was graded generously (most got 90%-100%). And you get something to put on your resume

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June 23, 2019
Quarter: Fall 2018
Grade: N/A

This class need a complete reform. It is not professor Eggert's fault but someone in CS department have to do something with it. Once again, everything in this class is a disaster and need a complete reform. Materials in the syllabus are useful but they are so poorly taught that we would rather study the same thing on our own during summer holiday.

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COM SCI 35L
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Nov. 19, 2021
Quarter: Fall 2021
Grade: N/A

before I took this course, I used to like programming

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COM SCI 131
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
March 10, 2021
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: N/A

What a bad course. I really have nothing to say that hasn't been said before. I don't think I've learned anything in this class that I didn't have to teach to myself and on top of that, I've lost interest in these topics because of the way this class was handled. I don't think I've met any student who has taken this class and not hated it (or themselves) by the end of it.

He really said that his course was better than the college of letters and science because his course was "harder"? Way to think that your mediocre class is better than any of the amazing courses I've taken in the college of letters and science. It's so boring when a white man is going off about how he thinks non-Engineering subjects are lesser than him.

Also, the fact that he doesn't tell us the answers to the exam or assignments shows that he actually doesn't care about us learning from our mistakes but he just wants to uphold the ridiculous standards that no one apart from him cares about. One of the worst classes I've taken at UCLA and that is really something because I have taken multiple other CS courses which were similar experiences (except CS 33. Shout out to professor Rienman who can do no wrong, cares about his students, teaches well, and doesn't have a god complex).

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March 31, 2020
Quarter: Spring 2019
Grade: A

It's almost like a philosophy of programming languages class - Eggert's lectures are engaging, thoughtful, and worth every second of your time. Each lecture is jam-packed with information (not always timely in relation to the projects, unfortunately). Each lecture genuinely feels like a valuable use of your time. You start to really enjoy every second of it. Then you remember it's still an Eggert CS class, and the projects destroy your very soul.

This is not a class to double with another hard class - this is a "take a GE, a moderately hard class (maybe) and another easy major class, then focus most of your efforts on this" kind of class. Projects are insanely difficult. Like insanely. Be prepared to sink hours of your life each week into them. You're pretty surely going to finish them, but it's going to take some willpower and some sacrifice.

Exams are typical Eggert fare - asking lots of theoretical questions that involve making arguments and backing them up. Honestly, after taking his CS 33, I think I was just more prepared for these, and they didn't seem that bad. Just pay attention in lecture, make sure your notes are well-organized, and present coherent answers to the questions he asks, citing stuff from lecture/discussion. If you're totally lost, find any relevant notes you have for the question, and start writing down key words and concepts in a way that seems like you're at least semi-legitimately trying to answer the question. Generally, that should get you to a B, if not an A, on the exam (after the curve, obviously, only like 4 people got a legit 90+ on these exams).

Yes, this class is stressful. Yes, it's a lot of work. Yes, you'll probably hate it while you're taking it (I know I did at times). However, I think you learn a good amount, and get a great discussion on a lot of the "why's" in CS. Honestly, I wish I'd tried to take every Eggert class I could have. If you have the opportunity to take 131 with him, do it - just make sure you're emotionally prepared to cry over some of your half-baked attempts at mutually recursive grammar parsing functional language nonsense.

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COM SCI 35L
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
March 30, 2022
Quarter: Winter 2022
Grade: A-

The other reviews are right. This class is a LOT of work. Labs are difficult. Lectures do not go over how to do them. You have to figure out a lot of it yourself (lots of googling). Discussions are also helpful, depending on your TA, with some good hints. Exams are also very hard, that's how Eggert exams are. Open book/notes, but somewhat more difficult conceptually (combine 2 ideas, pros and cons of a hypothetical program to create, etc), as well as some coding problems. Open notes helps, but not much. You need a good understanding of the material to succeed. Grading was very slow this quarter, we didn't have grades on any of the 6 assignments until after the final :/. Very untransparent, which was frustrating. All that being said, this class was VERY helpful. Eggert is a great lecturer, and incredibly smart. He definitely knows what he's talking about (ex: he coded part of emacs, which you use in this class). It's certainly difficult, and labs can be quite tedious, especially because his lectures just discuss the concepts/background of what you're doing, and you have to figure out the syntax/process. But I definitely am thankful I had this class, I learned a LOT. Might be an unpopular opinion, but I intend to take more classes with him (at least 131). You learn a lot in this class, and its a very valuable experience, potentially at the cost of a slightly lower GPA.

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June 25, 2019
Quarter: Spring 2019
Grade: A

This class is a pain in the ass, but as long as you don't cheat (i.e., don't look at GitHubs), you'll learn some really important skills for industry. I'm currently doing an internship, and being comfortable with Linux, bash, ssh, and git is really helpful.

The class is TA-led, so how much you struggle depends on who you get. Regardless, prepare to do a lot of Googling and to read a lot of man pages to get through some of your assignments. The assignments take up a lot of time, but Eggert's late policy is very generous, so you're almost never strapped for time.

The final is fairly difficult, but you can bring as many notes as you want. I recommend finding notes from previous students and printing those out. They also give you practice exams and solutions to them, so you will know what to expect on the final.

For reference, I averaged about a 94% on labs and got 67/100 on the final. The average for the final was about 54, and the standard deviation was 14.

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COM SCI 35L
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Dec. 30, 2020
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A

As the last batch of this class, I find it to be my responsibility to pass on the information of this course to the lurkers who wish to find out what this class was and learn more about the prologue of what is now CS 97.
Quite contrary to many of the other reviewers, I... liked this class. As someone who didn't know CS terminologies and tools out of the box, like git, bash, text editors, etc, I find this to bring me up to speed with what a lot of people come into college knowing in CS.
I did the projects 100% on my own, and it was worth it. I learned so much from this course. Yes the topics were split up by week, completely different from the other so it seemed quite disorganized, but as Professor Eggert would put it, this class is to help you learn how to learn. In that respect, this class achieved the objective.
The final was 50% of the grade which sucked but it's a great excuse to make sure that you know your stuff well when you exit the class. Because, well, CS 111 will kick your ass harder if you don't know stuff from this one.
The course was also a stage for Professor Eggert to flex about his Emacs contributions and GNU Linux contributions. You'll see his name on the command line more than you'll ever see it in class (it is TA-led, after all) and half of the answers to the assignment questions had his name popping around somewhere or the other.
Well, I must say that there are two reasons that this class was significantly more mangeable and merrier than previous batches. Primarily, we had an autograder, so we kinda knew our scores on submitting and could ask TAs on and off about which test cases we weren't hitting. Secondly, it was online, so the final exam format was that you have the internet and the servers to your disposal when attempting the exam, and you're kinda expected to use it.

Shoutout to Madhu the TA for being awesome in this quarter.

Well, not like this course will be offered again so, adios. Hope you ace CS 97, or whatever CS class that might be the standard software construction lab in the future.

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COM SCI 35L
Quarter: Fall 2019
Grade: N/A
Dec. 2, 2019

I suspect that this course was designed to make people who aren't 100% invested in cs quit the major. Just get this course over with ASAP.

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COM SCI 97
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: N/A
July 2, 2020

I wrote the following when people asked me for my opinion on CS 97 vs 35L. So this may not be a pure review per se but more like a comparison with 35L.

Disclaimer: I am someone who came into UCLA with a healthy amount of programming experience in C/C++ and some experience working with the Linux/Unix terminal. That said I had little to no experience with high-level scripting languages like Python or building web apps using JavaScript/node etc. I took CS 97 as an online class during Spring 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic so can say more about that but I will try to compare it with 35L as best I can. I may have missed some (or many) points here. Consult academic counselors/other students for more opinions.

First, some similarities between the classes and some advice for them:

1. Eggert is in charge. He writes the assignments and exams. Exams are typical Eggert exams - brutal with low averages. More on this later.
2. They are intended to teach you practical skills for software development - comfort with the Linux terminal, version control (git), scripting, etc.
3. TAs/LAs are your saviors. All of them were AMAZING this quarter. It is in your best interest to seek their help as soon and as often as possible.
4. There is the generous late policy of 2^(n-1) points deducted for n days late (iirc)
5. Exams are open book, open note and if taking online, open computer.
6. You are largely on your own for learning stuff outside the syllabus which, bear in mind, WILL be required for assignments/projects(CS 97) - this is a radical departure from CS 31-33 where you are taught everything and guided almost entirely (if you need it) for all assignments/homework. Not here - time to wake up and smell the coffee. These classes will significantly improve your ability to learn independently. Google and Linux man pages are your best friends.

Here are the MINOR differences between the 2 classes:

1. 35L is a 3 unit course, 97 is a 4 unit course (you must take it for 4 units if you want to apply credit towards 35L)
2. 35L is requires 4 hours of lab every week, 97 is a full course requiring 6 hours per week - 4 hours of lecture + 2 hours of discussion (the 2 extra hours may be a major difference for some people)

Here are the MAJOR differences:

Grading: 35L has 10 programming/homework assignments each weighted 5% (total 50%) and a final exam worth 50%.
97 has 4 programming/homework assignments which count for 5% total, 2 midterms worth 10% each, a final worth 23% and a project worth 50%. The remaining grade is made up of stuff like LA feedback surveys, class evaluation, etc.

Lectures: 35L is entirely TA-led. For 97, Eggert delivers 4 hours of lecture every week on various topics. More on this below.

Project: 97 has a project requirement (the name of the course is Software Construction Projects) whereas 35L does not . This project is half of your course grade and a major reason this class was introduced in the first place. We had to make something with a client-server architecture and almost everyone opted to build web/mobile apps with node/React. There were groups of 2,3,4 and even 5 people.

Now I will share my opinion on CS 97:

*Pros:*

Lectures: Gotta give credit where credit is due. Eggert is a LEGEND. As a lecturer, he is simply brilliant. Lectures mostly cover shell commands, file systems, Emacs, git, Python, client-server theory, C programming and debugging, etc. along with the history and philosophy of how these techniques came into play. Keep in mind I am someone who is usually irregular with attending lectures but I made it a point to watch and absorb every Eggert lecture and felt it was worth it. In my opinion, this is a major advantage of 97 over 35L which is known to be a broken class for lacking a teaching component like this.

Project: Even though I did not enjoy it too much personally, I’m sure I’m an exception here. The project experience was a huge plus for most people. A lot of people made a lot of awesome stuff. A good learning experience on how to build a large piece of software (much larger than CS 32 Project 3), web development, collaboration with team members, using git/GitHub and solving problems. Also, it’s relatively straightforward to score points so you can secure 50% of your grade if you don’t mess up simple instructions. You also get something to put on your resumé.

Assignments are worth less: I think 3 of the 4 assignments we had were also in 35L and these assignments can be hard. Fortunately, they aren’t worth much in 97 so you need not stress over them. Caveat: a good chunk (say around 30%) of exam questions were rooted in the assignments. So doing them can help you after all. But knowing how to do them may be sufficient for exams instead of stressing over meeting a deadline.

Variety of topics covered: The assignments and project requirements introduce you to a wider variety of material than 35L. Last time I checked, topics like client-server theory, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, React are not covered in 35L but I may be wrong.

*Cons:*

Exams: 97 has two more exams than 35L. Eggert exams are some of the most stressful ones in our CS curriculum. The exams are based largely on the lectures and assignments so you can sort of prepare for them and in an online quarter, the exams are open computer but a midterm is a midterm and I’d rather not have one than have one. But then these exams are what allow them to weigh the assignments at only 5%; also, if you somehow manage to do well (read: better than most other people) on them, you’re almost guaranteed an A since most people get identical grades for the other components. So I guess with exams, it goes both ways. I also feel the exams were fair - they related to the lectures/assignments and covered the objective of the course as a whole.

Assignments: The lectures DO NOT help with the assignments. We covered topics needed for assignments in lecture after the assignment was due. Assignments can put you in a tricky situation. They are medium-long time consuming and worth 0.75% or 1% max. So you may decide to skip them but then the thought of losing those points may linger in your head. Also, as mentioned above, doing the assignments is helpful for exams, so spending those hours may be worth it. YMMV.

Preparation for Upper Divs: I am only speaking from my experience of taking CS 111 so far, this may not be true. Almost all of 35L’s assignments are text editors, Python, C programming, scripting and debugging. This is not the case with CS 97 which covers those topics but not at the same level of depth. Problem is, mastering these techniques is essential for success in upper divs. For example, I struggled much more with Project 0 of CS 111 than I would have had I taken 35L. This point is open to discussion though, someone with more upper div experience could comment better.

Workload: Looking at the course websites, the workload for CS 97 seems heavier than 35L but since I haven’t taken 35L, I cannot comment on this accurately.

TL;DR / Overall Verdict:
Go for CS 97 if you like awesome lectures on CS and really want the project experience. The lectures and project will most likely serve you well in the long run. Also, if you are good at taking exams and have good intuition for things, it might be easier for you to get an A since you can use your intuition to convince the graders.
On the other hand, take CS 35L if you are someone who loves C programming, the Linux terminal, systems programming and someone who lives and dies by the command line. It will prepare you better for upper division classes (CS 111 at least) and help you master command-line tools better.
If I could go back and make a choice again, I would pick 35L since I fall in the latter category and didn’t enjoy web development a lot. I liked CS 97 though, it wasn’t boring or bad in any sense and I ended up learning a lot. But that is just a personal take. Hope this helps.

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COM SCI 35L
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2021
Grade: A
Dec. 28, 2021

Class is difficult and takes up more time than any previous class but is somewhat manageable. Class is graded on a curve and the average grade is around a B+ (maybe B or A-). This class teaches you a lot and gets you up to speed with actual software development.

To anyone confused about previous years' reviews, CS35L used to have lectures given by TAs instead of Eggert and more homeworks, and was much more difficult and chaotic. If you want more relevant reviews, take a look at CS97 from Spring 2020 onward, which was like the beta to the current 35L.

The main topics covered were Emacs (text editor), Unix, Shell/Bash Scripting, Lisp, Python, C, and Git. React and JavaScript were briefly covered in a lecture but were essential for one assignment and the entire final project. If you've never used React, knowing a little HTML/CSS/JS will help a lot.

Lectures/Homeworks: Eggert's lectures are a lot more theoretical and only cover a little syntax. You need to look up a lot of stuff for homeworks and teach yourself but you’ll learn a lot. Lectures are pretty interesting and I enjoyed them. The late penalty is pretty generous (only 1% off for 1 day late. 2^(N-1)% off for N days late). 3 or more (outta 6) of the homeworks were given extended deadlines. Homeworks can take up many hours.

Midterm and final are difficult and much different to traditional tests. You can't really study for them that much except for doing the practice tests. Many questions are open-ended and require you to understand instead of regurgitate. Some questions are pretty obscure/random. The tests are unlimited open-note, but extremely detailed notes on lectures only help on getting maybe an extra 5%. And don't leave any question blank. You will get some partial credit even if it's completely wrong.

For the final project, most people make a web app with React. Getting a good group where everyone does their fair share is crucial to not spending too much time on it. Your group presents to a discussion at the end of week 10. The project was graded generously (most got 90%-100%). And you get something to put on your resume

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COM SCI 35L
Quarter: Fall 2018
Grade: N/A
June 23, 2019

This class need a complete reform. It is not professor Eggert's fault but someone in CS department have to do something with it. Once again, everything in this class is a disaster and need a complete reform. Materials in the syllabus are useful but they are so poorly taught that we would rather study the same thing on our own during summer holiday.

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COM SCI 35L
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2021
Grade: N/A
Nov. 19, 2021

before I took this course, I used to like programming

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COM SCI 131
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: N/A
March 10, 2021

What a bad course. I really have nothing to say that hasn't been said before. I don't think I've learned anything in this class that I didn't have to teach to myself and on top of that, I've lost interest in these topics because of the way this class was handled. I don't think I've met any student who has taken this class and not hated it (or themselves) by the end of it.

He really said that his course was better than the college of letters and science because his course was "harder"? Way to think that your mediocre class is better than any of the amazing courses I've taken in the college of letters and science. It's so boring when a white man is going off about how he thinks non-Engineering subjects are lesser than him.

Also, the fact that he doesn't tell us the answers to the exam or assignments shows that he actually doesn't care about us learning from our mistakes but he just wants to uphold the ridiculous standards that no one apart from him cares about. One of the worst classes I've taken at UCLA and that is really something because I have taken multiple other CS courses which were similar experiences (except CS 33. Shout out to professor Rienman who can do no wrong, cares about his students, teaches well, and doesn't have a god complex).

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COM SCI 131
Quarter: Spring 2019
Grade: A
March 31, 2020

It's almost like a philosophy of programming languages class - Eggert's lectures are engaging, thoughtful, and worth every second of your time. Each lecture is jam-packed with information (not always timely in relation to the projects, unfortunately). Each lecture genuinely feels like a valuable use of your time. You start to really enjoy every second of it. Then you remember it's still an Eggert CS class, and the projects destroy your very soul.

This is not a class to double with another hard class - this is a "take a GE, a moderately hard class (maybe) and another easy major class, then focus most of your efforts on this" kind of class. Projects are insanely difficult. Like insanely. Be prepared to sink hours of your life each week into them. You're pretty surely going to finish them, but it's going to take some willpower and some sacrifice.

Exams are typical Eggert fare - asking lots of theoretical questions that involve making arguments and backing them up. Honestly, after taking his CS 33, I think I was just more prepared for these, and they didn't seem that bad. Just pay attention in lecture, make sure your notes are well-organized, and present coherent answers to the questions he asks, citing stuff from lecture/discussion. If you're totally lost, find any relevant notes you have for the question, and start writing down key words and concepts in a way that seems like you're at least semi-legitimately trying to answer the question. Generally, that should get you to a B, if not an A, on the exam (after the curve, obviously, only like 4 people got a legit 90+ on these exams).

Yes, this class is stressful. Yes, it's a lot of work. Yes, you'll probably hate it while you're taking it (I know I did at times). However, I think you learn a good amount, and get a great discussion on a lot of the "why's" in CS. Honestly, I wish I'd tried to take every Eggert class I could have. If you have the opportunity to take 131 with him, do it - just make sure you're emotionally prepared to cry over some of your half-baked attempts at mutually recursive grammar parsing functional language nonsense.

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COM SCI 35L
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Winter 2022
Grade: A-
March 30, 2022

The other reviews are right. This class is a LOT of work. Labs are difficult. Lectures do not go over how to do them. You have to figure out a lot of it yourself (lots of googling). Discussions are also helpful, depending on your TA, with some good hints. Exams are also very hard, that's how Eggert exams are. Open book/notes, but somewhat more difficult conceptually (combine 2 ideas, pros and cons of a hypothetical program to create, etc), as well as some coding problems. Open notes helps, but not much. You need a good understanding of the material to succeed. Grading was very slow this quarter, we didn't have grades on any of the 6 assignments until after the final :/. Very untransparent, which was frustrating. All that being said, this class was VERY helpful. Eggert is a great lecturer, and incredibly smart. He definitely knows what he's talking about (ex: he coded part of emacs, which you use in this class). It's certainly difficult, and labs can be quite tedious, especially because his lectures just discuss the concepts/background of what you're doing, and you have to figure out the syntax/process. But I definitely am thankful I had this class, I learned a LOT. Might be an unpopular opinion, but I intend to take more classes with him (at least 131). You learn a lot in this class, and its a very valuable experience, potentially at the cost of a slightly lower GPA.

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COM SCI 35L
Quarter: Spring 2019
Grade: A
June 25, 2019

This class is a pain in the ass, but as long as you don't cheat (i.e., don't look at GitHubs), you'll learn some really important skills for industry. I'm currently doing an internship, and being comfortable with Linux, bash, ssh, and git is really helpful.

The class is TA-led, so how much you struggle depends on who you get. Regardless, prepare to do a lot of Googling and to read a lot of man pages to get through some of your assignments. The assignments take up a lot of time, but Eggert's late policy is very generous, so you're almost never strapped for time.

The final is fairly difficult, but you can bring as many notes as you want. I recommend finding notes from previous students and printing those out. They also give you practice exams and solutions to them, so you will know what to expect on the final.

For reference, I averaged about a 94% on labs and got 67/100 on the final. The average for the final was about 54, and the standard deviation was 14.

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COM SCI 35L
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A
Dec. 30, 2020

As the last batch of this class, I find it to be my responsibility to pass on the information of this course to the lurkers who wish to find out what this class was and learn more about the prologue of what is now CS 97.
Quite contrary to many of the other reviewers, I... liked this class. As someone who didn't know CS terminologies and tools out of the box, like git, bash, text editors, etc, I find this to bring me up to speed with what a lot of people come into college knowing in CS.
I did the projects 100% on my own, and it was worth it. I learned so much from this course. Yes the topics were split up by week, completely different from the other so it seemed quite disorganized, but as Professor Eggert would put it, this class is to help you learn how to learn. In that respect, this class achieved the objective.
The final was 50% of the grade which sucked but it's a great excuse to make sure that you know your stuff well when you exit the class. Because, well, CS 111 will kick your ass harder if you don't know stuff from this one.
The course was also a stage for Professor Eggert to flex about his Emacs contributions and GNU Linux contributions. You'll see his name on the command line more than you'll ever see it in class (it is TA-led, after all) and half of the answers to the assignment questions had his name popping around somewhere or the other.
Well, I must say that there are two reasons that this class was significantly more mangeable and merrier than previous batches. Primarily, we had an autograder, so we kinda knew our scores on submitting and could ask TAs on and off about which test cases we weren't hitting. Secondly, it was online, so the final exam format was that you have the internet and the servers to your disposal when attempting the exam, and you're kinda expected to use it.

Shoutout to Madhu the TA for being awesome in this quarter.

Well, not like this course will be offered again so, adios. Hope you ace CS 97, or whatever CS class that might be the standard software construction lab in the future.

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