CS 3330

Good teacher, highly competent (knows his stuff and knows how to explain it well) etc. I strongly recommend reading the textbook (at least skimming it to get the gist) before coming to class, otherwise, you'll be lost because Reiss moves fast - he expects you to have done the readings. Some of the labs and homeworks can be tricky, but they're usually pretty short. Midway through the semester a new teacher Venkat came - oy vey he was atrocious. Fortunately, Venkat will probably not be at the university for much longer, while Reiss is here to stay.

Kinda tough class, but Reiss is helpful during office hours and pretty good at explaining concepts in lectures.

Reiss is an effective lecturer and holds great OH. He's the type to be able to answer any and every question that students have in class. Graham is still getting into the groove of teaching, but he got much better as the semester went on. (I took this class when Reiss was co-teaching it with Graham, and I think it went smoothly overall.) The course itself was difficult to grasp, but well spread-out. The concepts were hard and assignments took a long time, but the course-load was definitely not as bad as 2150. The tests were fair with averages on low side like any other CS course at UVA, so don't worry too much about your grades. Personally, I didn't find this class useful for industry, but it was nice to know.

I would say he is one of the most effective instructor teaching this course. He always opens up the ground for the questions and he teaches very well, though, the quizzes are absurdly hard and the final was ridiculous. Some homework and labs were crazy too. Be prepared to be stressed every week. Think of 2150- it's very similar. He did not curve the class and there was no rounding. Very tough class. #tCF2020

I'm a software guy through and through, so I didn't expect to enjoy an architecture based class coming in. Imagine my surprise when this actually ended up being one of my favorite classes this semester. It's tough, absolutely, and you might hate yourself for a good portion of the semester, but you definitely learn a lot.

Some good tips for future students taking the class
- You'll have to work off of a Linux based machine for the homeworks. Do yourself a favor and look into SSHing into the department machines using VS Code. You'll be able to code from your native text editor without having to use a terminal and take advantage of syntax highlighting. Makes the assignments 10x more enjoyable.
- Finish the homework assignments before doing the quizzes
- Start the homeworks early. This isn't a class you can half ass last minute
- You can either watch the lectures live or watch the recordings. Just make sure you don't fall behind.

#tCF2020 Computer Architecture is a notorious class, but I felt that taking it online was a lot easier than it would be in-person. To start off, Professor Reiss is very intelligent and he knows a lot about the topic he is teaching, but it is SO HARD to understand what he is talking about if you get lost at any point of lectures. The worst part is, if you get lost during one lecture, you will not understand the next lecture, or the next lecture, or the next. He goes through exercises pretty quickly and tends to skip steps, so it is hard to follow along if you are watching a recorded lecture. The course revolves around weekly labs (wed), quizzes (due tues), and homeworks (due wed), so prepare for this class to take over your schedule for the entire semester. I tried to do quizzes on Fridays, start on homeworks on Sundays, and start labs on Tuesdays. It really pays off to start ahead of time! Since the final exam this semester was completely online (24 hr open period), there was less pressure to memorize material and remember everything. However, it was still really tricky. Overall, I'd say to just stay on top of it and not leave anything to the last minute!

If I had one bit of advice for anyone... DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITHOUT REISS I REPEAT DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITHOUT REISS. Now that we have that out of the way, I have to say I found the material very dry and boring. It is essentially all the architecture and assembly stuff you learned from cs 2150 and wished you could just gloss over but in even more excruciating detail. With all that being said, the highlight for me was most definitely the homework assignments that actually served to apply the dry material to something that may be useful later on in your career. The quizzes, however, were nightmarishly tedious and long-winded and the averages were in the high 70's or low 80's despite being open not and being given days to take it. You will get through this class as long as you pay attention to Reiss and go to office hours when necessary. I found that although Reiss sometimes rushes through the material he is very approachable during office hours and takes time for questions. Not to mention he is by far the best cs 3330 professor and his slides are quite helpful. Be wary of the final though...

If you're already not into low-level computer classes, this course probably won't change how you feel about it. With that being said, Reiss is generally an effective instructor. He begins every lecture with a review of the previous lecture and usually includes multiple exercises throughout each lecture to ensure students are understanding the material. There are a few super time consuming homeworks (namely bomb and pipe), but given the dryness of the content, the homeworks can be somewhat enjoyable to do. From what I can tell, the other arch professors are not all that great and Reiss seems to be the best and most reliable option for this course. I'm not sure if this is good advice, but Reiss tells all his students to read the textbook for every lecture, but I ended up never reading the textbook and finished with an A+ in the course. If you follow the lectures and assignments properly and go to office hours when you need to, you should be fine without the textbook.

Prof. Reiss is articulating everything properly as well as answering every question, but that's all. I do not feel Prof. Reiss' effort in stimulating students' understanding, nor does he respond positively to suggestions. I have no problem understanding the content but a lot of people are complaining. Therefore, I recommended Prof. Reiss to give a brief preview before each lecture to give people an expectation so they can better understand. However, I never heard back from him. Maybe he thought it was a bad idea.
The content is straightforward, though the quiz questions can be tricky.

This class blowwwwwws. I really would not recommend it unless you must take it for your major/minor. Reiss is pretty generous with grading (drops lowest two weekly quiz grades and curves at the end if he thinks he has to), but the material is super hard to grasp and apply to the weekly hws and labs. Labs are optionally collaborative which is nice so you definitely need to find a buddy in this class. Final was one of the hardest I've ever taken. Overall, Reiss is a good choice for this class but it's still extremely difficult imo.