CS 2102

I would like to preface this review with the fact that this course has many issues. I think it is incredibly unfair that the same course (CS 2102) taught by different professors can be so completely different in terms of difficulty, course material and policies. This semester other teachers allowed open notes midterms and ungraded homework assignments. This is Edwards last semester but this class was horrible. To be fair it is very difficult to teach this subject, and for me, it unfortunately didn't click. That being said, however, I don't think Edwards is a good teacher. He moves very quickly through material as if we've seen it before. He repeatedly was unhappy with us for not putting in the effort or working hard on the in class problems, when in reality, a large percentage of the class didn't know what was going on so they couldn't solve the problem. He would intentionally not go over problems in class if it looked like we didn't care. I went to office hours for help and I felt incredibly inferior. Overall, this course is very difficult, and Edwards made it more difficult than it needed to be. I don't recommend this class at all. Wound up doing great in the class in the end because of a crazy curve put on the final, (was hoping for a C-, thought the exam was super difficult, got a A on it) but the good final grade really wasn't even worth the stress of the class.

Discrete is pretty different from any other course most students have taken. With Edwards begins with logic, truth tables, then transitions to actual math proofs, then sets. Edwards is super passionate about this subject and clearly puts hours into preparing his slides. A lot of the sentiment towards this class is because Edwards doesn't go easy on his students. He truly loves this stuff and wants his students to enjoy at the high level he does. The problem sets are pretty difficult so you should START EARLY and GO TO TA OFFICE HOURS to work on it. What really makes this course worthwhile are the "Ah Ha" moments when you understand the proof, because they again, they aren't easy. Edwards said in the beginning of the semester that his Exams would not be easy.....and he was right. They were very hard, but if you thoroughly understood all the problems from class and the problem set, it was....still pretty hard lol. But as you can tell from the grade distribution it wasn't impossible. Edwards is moving and will not be teaching at UVA, so this course will definitely be easier. That said, he was a really awesome dude who really loved discrete and will be missed (by some of us lol).

For those who have learned real analysis in math, it' s super easy. I did not do hw (all rely on my partner ) and use 4 hours to go over the midterm and 3 hours for final. Probably b/c Edwards is leaving so he becomes more lenient? The final was so easy and average is quite high(88-ish?) Easy A for me.