This class is pretty much guaranteed to be painful. But Russell teaches it really well. He's a good lecturer and he really looks out for you; his office hours are pretty good. He keeps the tests true to what's in class, and keeps them really fair. Tough class, good way to take it.

Professor Russell was great. From what I've heard in the past, this course has sucked because of the Professors, but Russell was a really cool guy. The class wasn't particularly difficult, but there are definitely some things that are hard to grasp. Russell does a great deal of example problems and posts them all on collab which is a huge help (although he has to be reminded a lot to update collab) plus he holds Tuesday night optional review sessions where he literally just goes over example problems for an hour and a half. He doesn't curve at all which kind of sucks because the tests weren't super easy, but if you pay attention he'll give hints as to what will be on the tests and he gives good partial credit.