I found the course material to be phenomenally interesting so thoroughly enjoyed the course. The lectures tend to be a bit dry, though I found Beling's to be better than Patek's (since Patek's too slow for me, I agree with Beling that most of his lectures could easily be done in 45 minutes instead of 1 hour 15).

Tests weren't bad if you banged your head against the wall doing the HWs. HWs can be a bit time intensive but not too bad, office hours help (though don't go to them unless you've tried the HW).

Patek and Beling may not seem like the most exciting professors you'll ever have, but the material in this class is definitely interesting and applicable to real-world problems. Work hard on the homework because that's the only way you'll really learn anything. Overall, not bad, fairly interesting, and not overly time consuming.

This is a very useful class but can be difficult to understand. The lectures are pretty boring but if you are not one who can learn from reading powerpoints, they are useful to listen to. The midterms are difficult due to the time crunch but there is an elaborate curving method at the end of the semester.

Boring lectures, you might need to go to them though to just get the concepts into your head. Office hour visits to the TAs and professors are a must for the long ass homework assignments given out weekly. The grading schemes are super flexible so if you fail one midterm, you can come back on the 2nd midterm, homeworks, and final. The two professors are the most white bread people on the face of the earth. If you have a dry sense of humor, or can appreciate it, you'll love it and laugh at the absurdity of systems and what this class is. Good luck. Try not to stress too much over this one.

Really tough class at times but it's definitely worthwhile. Both of the professors are hilarious and really know their stuff. Highly recommended.

HWs are a little tough, but if you go to OHs they'll walk you through them to help you figure it out. Midterm and Final are a bit tough because they focus on formulation, but as long as you make sure to really pay attention during lecture and think outside of the box not too bad.

The professors understand the concept well.. but they can't really teach it. HW problems are often full of holes and logical fallacies and professors don't really care. TAs are a great help to doing homeworks- they will practically go over the hw step by step with you.

Interesting subject area and taught well but I don't think the tests allow enough time, considering a hw problem of the same magnitude would take me twice as long as given.

Tough class. Open note tests and finals but all test questions are new and hard to prepare for. The homeworks take a long time and you need to start a while before they are due.

Difficult class but surprisingly it ends up being pretty fun/interesting in the end, since it requires some what creativity in coming up with solution (not your old plug and chug type of problem solving). Beling and Patek are pretty cool. Expect to spend a good amount of time in office hours to complete the weekly problem sets. Definitely work on it in groups! Lectures were not that helpful, (I would end up skipping/sleeping) and you end up learning a lot of the material by doing the homework, looking at lecture slides on your own, and asking the TA. Definitely pray for a good TA. Larry is the man!!!