CS 3102

This is a class with good intentions but the course is not well structured. Since the homework is optional, you have to be intrinsically motivated to learn anything relevant to the class at all. There are 3 problem sets, each with a ton of problems (requires way too much time to finish on your own though) and even after going to all the problem sessions (which are held once a week), I did not finish all the problems. I don't really recommend this class unless you are actually interested in the material.

I LOVE Prof. Robins. He’s a really sweet and knowledgeable guy. However, this class kinda sucks. He shouldn’t be teaching theory; he should be teaching a lifestyle class. The only way to succeed is to go to office hours. The cheating policy is very vague, so a lot of people get in trouble for cheating on the first midterm even though they don’t think they cheated. Just be careful with that and make sure that you literally do not Google a single problem and you don’t use a Google Doc to share work. He implemented required homework this semester which sucked because the homework’s were extremely long and impossible to complete without TA help. Another issue is that the grading is incredibly inconsistent. I got a 21/25 on a problem on the homework, and that same problem was on the exam, and I used the same answer except I corrected what I got the 4 points off for, and I got a 14/20 for that problem on the exam. Really annoying. But anyway, aside from the actual graded part of the class, it’s great!

Don't take this class unless you have to. The materials in the class are pretty interesting, but the class has no structure at all and it makes it pretty difficult to learn. If you are genuinely interested in the materials and is willing to read textbooks, do problem sets and go to TA office hours, then this class should be a breeze. But there's no assigned readings or weekly exercises to help you learn the materials, so basically everything has to be self-taught. If you are not motivated to learn, then it's very easy to put this class on the back burner until a homework or exam is posted and you realize you have to start learning.
We had 2 homework this semester, where HW1 was posted around middle of the semester, and HW2 was posted a couple of days before final exam opened. Each assignment was not turned in or handed back in a consistent way, some are on paper and was turned in and given back in class, some are through collab assignments, and exams are on TPEGS, which can be somewhat annoying. Since he curves the overall course grade and not with each exam, I didn't really know how I was doing in the middle of the semester. Lectures are ok but it's very easy to lose focus. He occasionally takes attendance so make sure you go to lecture. Midterm and final exams are take home but can be challenging (doing problem sets he posted at the beginning of the semester are definitely helpful for exams).
There are extra credit assignments: doing readings and submitting summaries or submitting answers for questions talked about in lecture. Try to do as many readings as possible. There are 36 required ones, and it's helpful to do about 3-4 per week so you don't cram at the end of the semester.
Overall, this class has the potential to be really interesting if it had a lot more structure. It's not hard to get an A if you work hard, but it's definitely not an easy A.

You have to read a bunch of books unrelated to the course if you take it with Robbins. Overall the topics are cool, but the class isn't run very well.

I took Theory of Computation as an elective class and got an A. The content in this class was worth learning and Robins along with his TA's were knowledgeable. If you did not know, CS3102 has for a while been a mostly independent/group-study class that tackles the Complexity Zoo of languages through lengthy problem sets and homeworks. Most problems on the tests come from these problem sets. Additionally it is not hard to do well in the class as it is curved, and there is an abundance of credit and extra credit in the form of books/videos/articles. Does this not sound like a great class?

It is not a great class. It is particularly bad as a class designed to improve proof-writing ability among CS majors. First let me start with Robins... People seem to like him but I cannot help but call him a hack. I thought this from the second week, ever since he introduced us to the Cantor set and couldn't help but mention its Hausdorff metric. He has good intentions but there are so many quirks with his teaching that create an unnecessarily weird atmosphere. From telling us about the "dangers" of induction, to making as many venture capitalist analogies as he can, to calling us his Padawans, to spending entire lectures on 2-3 slides, to his last day charade where we discussed science fiction and rationality and ultimately interfered with the following class' time. While this is a mostly independent class, there is an attendance grade so you have to sit through whatever he's been cooking up for the day's talk. Robins is incredibly pompous yet tries to be relatable at the same time... it just does not work. Even if he has a Touring Machine!

Of course this is not enough for me to justify my rating. How his teaching/policies are incorporated into the class is really where things go bad. Because of the independent nature of the class, people have been prone to cheating and he is really sizing up his cheating policy to tackle the problem. But he handles this poorly. Not once, but twice, we have spent a solid 30+ minutes discussing the topic in lecture. From all the possible ways they can detect cheating, to the TA's saying how it makes them feel, etc. And then the homeworks themselves the same lengthy passages on the topic. It particularly annoys me that he states you will NEED to see the TA's often and attend Saturday problem sessions (with Domino's Pizza as an incentive lol) in order to learn in his class. That's why I think this is a terrible proof-writing class: Robins is quite the figurehead in telling us how to learn. For a problem set-focused class, he makes things unnecessarily stiff and serious. It seems others felt the same as there were Piazza arguments about his last-minute decision to replace the midterm grade with the final grade if it's better. This is what I mean by the weird atmosphere... something meant to help us just causes insecurity.

Finally I'll take a broad look again. Was the content worth learning? Yes, there were many interesting and important concepts we tackled. Is there enough support to properly learn? More than enough! Were the lectures worth attending? No, they were largely a waste of time. We missed out on topics like incompressible strings that were tested on problem sets, yet we spent multiple weeks on things we didn't really need to know. Were the required books/articles insightful? The Art of Problem Solving was a good read. Meanwhile Godel, Escher, Bach was pretentious and way too long for the class. Is it recommended to take CS3102 as a BACS student? Not with Robins... learn the material on your own if you need to. There are more important CS classes to enroll in.