CS 2102

If you do all the homework on your own, I think you can do pretty well in this class. A lot of the material I learned on my own through doing the homework (I didn't really pay attention in class/I found it hard to learn during lecture). Since you can do homework with a group, a lot of the groups ended up splitting up the problems. But I found that my group doing every problem was really helpful since you can see how other people approach the problem, and this is helpful because on the tests you'll have to think on your feet and figure out the answer by thinking logically, so being exposed to different ways of thinking was beneficial.

Nice enough professor, but the course itself is pretty boring. You'll almost never use this material while coding, and it's barely used in other courses as well. Group homeworks are fine, OH are usually pretty helpful. Exams can be kind of a pain though, so know your proofs well. Other than that, just a CS class you kinda have to suck it up and take.

This class is required for CS and CpE majors so it's not so much of a question of "should I take this?" as "how do I get through this class?" As other reviews have said, Prof. Edwards is a really nice guy-he genuinely wants to help you, even if sometimes he comes off a little aloof. However, he isn't the best lecturer. Something about his voice tends to make a considerable number of people fall asleep during class. He does try to make lectures more interesting with some funny pictures (most of which only he laughs at), and he is pretty good at explaining the topics covered.
The big thing about this class is the fact that the homework is essentially groupwork. He structures the homeworks so they're almost too long to do them by yourself, especially if you're taking DLD or Fun 1. Your best bet is to get a group together and split the work up, which is what he wants you to do. Be advised: choose your group wisely, because it's not fun to have half the group leave halfway through the semester and leave you out to dry (happened to me).
Most of the content throughout this semester builds off itself, with the exception of RSA Encryption and Graph Theory, so you won't be studying 20 different topics for the final. The one complaint I have about this class is that Edwards makes the tests long to the point where you'll barely finish in the time you have, so you've really got to know everything forwards and backwards.

Have fun with the proofs!

Edwards is a likable guy--he's really passionate about this class (more so than 2110, which I took with him the previous semester) and I respect him for that. The material is kind of random, but somewhat interesting at points, and proof/logic skills are good to have in any discipline. If you're not sure about a CS major, I'd hold off on this until you know for sure, because it won't be super useful otherwise.
I did the problem sets alone and yes they were pretty hard but I think if I had worked in a group, I would have slacked off on some material and been screwed for the tests. The second test was way harder than the first so be ready for that. Definitely go to office hours--the TAs are really smart and were willing to help explain a lot, and honestly there are no dumb questions. But don't underestimate the time you need for homework--start Tuesday if you can (due Thursday night) so you don't spend 7 hours in office hours and run home to turn it in at 11:58. Textbook is unnecessary, although some people have said that it has some good explanations/problems, but then again, you can also find good PPTs and documents online when you're studying.

I have mixed feelings about this class. Although many people seem to like him, I am not a fan of Professor Edwards. The material itself is hard enough to understand, but he was extremely unhelpful in his office hours. In the times I went, he seemed incredibly annoyed that I was there and that the questions I asked were simply wasting his time. Although he is passionate about this course, his lectures are incredibly dry, especially when you get to the later, more "proofy" material. That being said, UTILIZE THE TA'S. I cannot stress this enough. I did not have a group like most people so I did all of the homeworks on my own, meaning I was in office hours once or twice a week. The TA's are incredibly helpful and genuinely understand that the material is difficult to grasp for most people. For me, they were much, much more helpful than Professor Edwards. The tests are hard, specifically the second one, but the final is pretty straightforward. The first half of the class is pretty interesting, especially when you get to the logic and conditional stuff, but the second half of the class is straight mathematical proofs, which is an absolute pain. Expect to put a lot of work into this class if you want to do well, because it is required for every CS major.

Not a bad class. A lot of people hate it, but I actually enjoyed it. It's basically a class on math theory and other concepts on algorithms/logic. Edwards is very passionate about this course and he tries to make lecture enjoyable/funny. Make sure you take notes on everything because the material can end up being difficult later. The quizzes are extremely straight forward and easy. (you get to drop your lowest score as well) The tests are somewhat difficult. It's not really the questions though... time seems to be your biggest concern. I don't understand how Edwards expects us to finish his exams during class. Half the class didn't finish the first exam on time while 90% of the class didn't finish on the second exam. You need to seriously rush through all of the questions and you have no time to double check your answers. Some of the questions are a little bit tricky... so watch out. Luckily, his final isn't too bad and you have plenty of time. He also ends up curving the class... so don't worry too much.
What really hurts your grade is the homework. The homework can sometimes be extremely difficult and the grading is very meticulous. Find a GOOD group to work with and work through all of the problems together. Never divide and conquer. You'll end up screwing yourself during the exams if you do. If your group doesn't seem productive, leave and find a new group!! You can switch groups or work alone on any assignment. I highly recommend you don't work alone because the homework can sometimes be tricky. This is a theory/logic class... you can't just learn from yourself, you need to learn how others think. In general, the homework takes about 3-8 hours depending on the efficiency of your group and the difficult of the assignment.
Honestly, this class has taught me a lot. I actually highly recommend this for non-CS majors as well. Not an easy A... but it teaches you a lot. If you're a very logical thinker (you know who you are), you won't have too much trouble. Never knew there was a textbook. Taking DLD (CS 2330) before this really helps. (and vice versa. Taking this class really helps for DLD)

This is the single worst class I have ever taken in my life. If you are not a CS major, avoid this class like the plague. If you are, know that there is about 0.1% of the material that will actually be relevant to the CS field or to your careers and this class is basically just a monumental waste of time that will make you want to rip your hair out. Also, don't mistake this for a CS class - it is a logic and proof-based math class (but honestly, I would rather take the hardest calc class in the E-school over this nonsense).

The weekly problem sets are hard - still, I recommend doing them by yourself instead of a group. Even though they will take you forever, you will actually be much better prepared for the tests - I cannot emphasize this enough. The first test is simple, but the second test may have been the hardest test I have ever taken. The final is kind of hard too, so make sure you study a lot. The TA's grade leniently and give lots of partial credit for the two tests, but there will be many questions you won't even know how to start, so that doesn't matter much.

Edwards is a bad professor, period. Yes, there is a curve at the end (though not as big as people make it out to be). Yes, he is a nice guy. Yes, he is passionate about discrete math (he calls this class his baby). But as far as lecturing goes, he is extremely boring and fails to capture the attention of the class. His slides are useless to study from for the tests too. Instead of wasting your time in lecture, I would recommend thoroughly going through the free online textbook he provides, because that actually explains all the concepts clearly and gives helpful practice problems.

I actually felt like the more I tried in this class, the more confused I became, and ended up getting worse grades. Some of the material was genuinely interesting (e.g. RSA encryption) but the real problem was that he made it overly complex and difficult. He basically made even the simplest concepts hard to understand and overall just made this class much harder and much more boring than it needed to be. Honestly, just go to TA's a lot and try your best - unfortunately this class is a prereq for real CS classes that are truly interesting and useful, so just bear with it.

Edwards has a monotone voice that lulls people to sleep. Tests are rather rushed; it is crucial that you figure out the balance between proof rigor and time. Weekly problem sets (groupwork) are a pain, especially if you have uncooperative groupmates.

Worst class ever. You're probably only taking this if you have to, so I'm sorry & good luck. Professor is boring, dry, has terrible power points, and is rude during office hours. He assumes everyone gets what he's talking about right away and moves extremely fast, introducing new topics with one practice problem and then moving on. If you've never had exposure to "proofs" before- GOOD LUCK. I spent the entire semester trying to understand this class and some people just get it. It takes a certain kind of thinking/problem solving to succeed. "Do the problem sets by yourself" is what everyone will tell you to succeed, but realistically if you want any sort of social life you'll split it up with a group (try and find 3 other competent people). Do your portion of the problems but look at theirs and their answers if you want to do well on the tests (not speaking from experience. Got a D+ on the first test and an F on the second after studying for a solid 4 days (at least) for both, but also my fault for not doing the problem sets with TA's each week and only doing my portion of the problems. Got a B on the final after I finally understood the major concepts. Pulled out a C+ at the end of the semester despite the bad exams. Also, if you're a slow or even moderate test taker, good luck. Exams are so long that you barely have enough time to finish the problems even if you know exactly how to do it. Overall, it sucked.

Unfortunately, it seems like this is a class where you either "get it" or you don't. I was one of the lucky ones and it just kind of clicked for me, to the point that many of the problems and concepts seemed intuitively obvious. I had a couple friends who had similar experiences, but there were definitely many people who struggled.

The homeworks are hard, but not impossible. I did them with one other person and it would typically take us about 3 hours for each one. Never went to office hours so I can't speak to that. They were graded pretty leniently; we had a lot of answers that we were pretty sure were wrong or incomplete, but never got below an 8/10 on an assignment.

Going to this class seemed pretty much optional. I went maybe 50% of the time. The "pop" quizzes are never a surprise, and the lowest one is dropped anyway so it's not too much of a concern. I think Edwards is a pretty approachable guy, and you can tell that he enjoys this material. But he can be a little monotonous and I often felt like there wasn't much of a point going to lecture when most of the material seemed perfectly learnable just by looking through the slides. Also I never cracked open a textbook. The slides are good enough in my opinion.

The exams seem to be the obstacle for most people. I will say that the 2nd midterm was much harder than both the first midterm and the final. I studied probably about 2-3 hours for each exam, but again I was one of the lucky ones. Partial credit was surprisingly very good. Maybe I just had a nice TA grading mine. For a class so focused on proofs, you would think that they would mark off a lot more if you just put an answer without work, which I had to do several times due to time limitations. But they always gave full credit for those, as long as the answer was right.

Again, for a lot of people it really seems to boil down to just whether or not this class fits well with the way your mind works or something like that. I only studied a couple hours for the final and got a 99, but I know many people studied for days and did much worse. This wasn't because I'm so much smarter than all of them or anything like that; in most classes they probably do better than me. I don't have an extensive background in this