COMS W1001

The workload is definitely manageable. Homework assignments every few weeks, one midterm, and a final. The homework assignments are not the kinds of things you can do in one night, but they are fun and you don't feel like you're wasting your time doing them. I'd suggest starting them early and going to Cannon (or the TAs) with any questions. Also, the homework assignments get progressively harder so don't expect the second one to be as easy as the first!!

Very reasonable. Bi-weekly homework assignments that I occasionally needed to go to the TAs for help with, a midterm, and a final. Don't worry if you mess up the final -- if you've done well on the midterm, he'll weigh that more. I screwed up and got a C on the final, but after completely panicking, I ended up getting an A in the class because I did well on the midterm and all of the homework assignments and did a ton of last-minute extra credit.

Don't do anything just show up to the three tests and hope to get lucky by just picking.

Adam Cannon is wonderful. Funny, nice, knowledgeable, good at explaining things, basically everything you want a teacher to be. The Intro to Computers class (now renamed Intro to Information Science) is basically an overview for people who want to know a bit about computers but aren't going to major in Comp Sci, but I love this class so much that I've decided to start a Comp Sci minor. The class is not quite a walk in the park; there is some serious work involved, but it's nowhere near unreasonable and always rewarding (see below). If you're looking for a fun, useful, not-too-tough class to fill out your schedule with, this is a great option.

I had pretty terrible expectations for this course since I am not a comp sci person whatsoever, but it surprised me completely. It was actually fun, interesting, and informative, and it was all because of what a great professor Apoorv was. He cared so much about his students and really tailored the class to our abilities. After seeing how terribly most of us did on the first homework, he slowed the pace of the class way down, which might have been frustrating if you had been really into comp sci, but let's be honest -- anyone who was would have skipped right to Java. For what it was -- a class that I was taking purely to fulfill a requirement -- it was really great. Apoorv is a genuinely nice guy, responds to emails almost immediately, and is always willing to meet with you if you're having trouble. He's young and cool and has lots of friends who work at Google. He also really cares about his students, and obviously wanted us to do well. Sometimes he isn't great at explaining concepts, but other than that, he's a seriously awesome professor and I would recommend his class to any humanities major who wants to get the Barnard Quantitative requirement out of the way in a painless (or possibly even enjoyable) way.

This class was a major disappointment. I took a years worth of psychology in high school and after reading reviews about this class i figured it wouldn't be that bad. Boy was I wrong. Galanter is a very boring lecturer and his tests are extremely unfair actually impossible. I have no idea how some people managed to score 105 on them. I did a fair amount of reading and attended almost all the lectures but once it came time to take the test I was lost. I knew everything there was to know about classical conditioning but I couldn't answer the questions on the test about it. This class is definately not an easy A or B. I highly suggest not taking it.

Its not an easy A. A reasonable B+ but def not an easy A. you will spend hours and hours trying to figure out how to do the last 3 h/w assignments. the book is soooooo boring. torture. seriously. but he says he is changing it next year so good luck with whatever you get.

he is a really nice prof. He was also very into his stuff. At times I felt that he went on for a bit about privacy issues but even when he did it was still interesting. The workload isnt a lot really. Except the problem sets get a bit ridic. I would suggest reaching out to him well in advance with questions about it. He is really helpful.

5 problem sets increasing in difficulty, two weeks for each. midterm and final. really not too bad. some of the assignments are really fun like the first programming one... a third of it was logic riddles!

great class! A.C. is funny, likable, knows his stuff, and presents information in a way that makes a relatively intimidating topic (for non science people) feel like fun. I would highly recommend this class for anyone, especially those who have little or no experience in compsci and are interested in a light challenge. the first half of the class covers things like databases, networks, computer architecture and organization (how computers actually work), and basic HTML. After the midterm, the class got more challenging, but not too much so... an introduction to programming in the language PYTHON. i found this to be really fun although it can be rather frustrating. fulfills the columbia college science requirement even though it isn't on the list!