CS 4414

If you're going to take OS, take it with Skadron. He knows his stuff. That being said, the course material isn't awfully exciting. However, Skadron doesn't use slides (just chalk, he's old school), so you probably should pay attention. If you do, you find he gives you solid hints on the assignments. Every programming assignment is in C and you should get comfortable with looking at man pages. The assignment descriptions themselves are short and it's up to you to sort of "figure it out" before you start hacking at the keyboard. The TA's and Skadron won't hold your hand, but if you go to office hours with specific questions you'll get good guidance.

The material is fairly dry and uninteresting, and lectures are fairly boring, but he pretty much tells you what you need to do to get the homework done during lecture. He's pretty helpful and doesn't try to trip you up. Exams are open notes/book and take home so that's nice too.

Was a useful class, professor cared about the class and was constantly trying to improve. The material itself is dry and pretty difficult, but it will be worth your time.

This class was one of the best I've taken in the engineering school. The course was challenging, but not impossible. Professor Skadron is the most patient professor, and responds so well to student's questions in class. He also really cares about teaching, and he does a great job lecturing and making sure we understood the concepts. Great class, great professor.

Skadron seems to really care about his students learning the material. The class isn't easy and programming assignments will take a while, but the material itself is interesting and this is definitely a worthwhile class.

This class grew on me over time. At first, I found Skadron boring, but toward the end of the class, lectures became more interesting, and he was more enthused. Programming assignments range in difficulty, with a few not taking much time at all to NACHOS which eat away at your life for weeks. Tests are take-home and assignments can be done in pairs.

Skadron knows his stuff, but his lectures can be a bit boring. He lets you work in groups if you want for all the projects which you will definitely want to. They tend to be very time consuming, but you do learn a lot from them.