Michael Smith - University of Calgary

Professor: Michael Smith
Department: Engineering
College: University of Calgary
Rating # 1
Overview:
  • Course: ENCM511
  • Grade Received: B
  • Overall Rating: 3.0
  • Course Difficulty: 5.0
  • For Credit: Yes
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: No
  • Attendance: Not Mandatory
Comment:
Dr. Smith is nice a guy and seems to actually care for his students. However, the course is very unorganized and most of the time, learning the content will be done outside of class and on your own.
Rating # 2
Overview:
  • Course: ENCM511
  • Grade Received: A+
  • Overall Rating: 3.0
  • Course Difficulty: 3.0
  • For Credit: Yes
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: Yes
  • Attendance: Not Mandatory
Comment:
No Textbook Lectures explain the labs (except for the "chalktalks" which are on exams) Labs are 100% of the course, all course marks can be obtained from understanding the labs. He has a hands off approach and expects you to learn on your own with your mistakes. Just do the labs.
Rating # 3
Overview:
  • Course: ENCM511
  • Grade Received: A+
  • Overall Rating: 1.0
  • Course Difficulty: 4.0
  • For Credit: Yes
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: No
  • Attendance: Not Mandatory
Comment:
The lectures are mostly useless. Labs are way longer than they need to be. But as long as you understand all the labs, you will do fine in the course.
Rating # 4
Overview:
  • Course: ENCM511
  • Grade Received: A-
  • Overall Rating: 2.0
  • Course Difficulty: 5.0
  • For Credit: Yes
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: No
  • Attendance: Mandatory
Comment:
You have to go to lab every single week. Each lab takes around 10 hours.
Rating # 5
Overview:
  • Course: ENCM511
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 1.0
  • Course Difficulty: 4.0
  • For Credit: Yes
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: No
  • Attendance: Not Mandatory
Comment:
The only saving grace is all the extra marks that he gives and how chill he is about deadlines. It's a really difficult course, especially for the first 3/4 of the semester. His labs are so difficult to follow and take hours and hours (not of actual work, mostly the time is spent deciphering the slides). Nice guy, not so good instructor .
Rating # 6
Overview:
  • Course: ENCM511
  • Grade Received: B
  • Overall Rating: 2.0
  • Course Difficulty: 4.0
  • For Credit: Yes
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: No
  • Attendance: Not Mandatory
Comment:
Smith is a good guy and he cares a lot about his students. However, it is almost impossible to figure out what he's asking in labs/assignments, and he refuses to change this. Expect 50+ hour labs/assignments, of which you'll spend 10+ hours just confused about what he's even asking. If you don't do the labs, you will probably fail.
Rating # 7
Overview:
  • Course: ENCM511
  • Grade Received: B-
  • Overall Rating: 1.0
  • Course Difficulty: 4.0
  • For Credit: Yes
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: No
  • Attendance: Not Mandatory
Comment:
Skipped all of his lectures. Labs were very long. Read the blackfin manual instead of his disorganized notes. Gives a lot of bonus marks though.
Rating # 8
Overview:
  • Course: ENCM511
  • Grade Received: A
  • Overall Rating: 3.0
  • Course Difficulty: 3.0
  • For Credit: Yes
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: No
  • Attendance: Not Mandatory
Comment:
An amazing prof but disastrously disorganized. He's passionate. He's willing to help your case if you atleast make an effort to learn. He's available to help you almost always. Grading criteria is favourable. Because of poor documentation and unclear instructions, assignments and labs take forever. To pass, DO the assignments and labs yourself!
Rating # 9
Overview:
  • Course: ENCM511
  • Grade Received: A-
  • Overall Rating: 3.0
  • Course Difficulty: 4.0
  • For Credit: Yes
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: No
  • Attendance: Not Mandatory
Comment:
The course is inherently difficult. He's a nice guy, a decent lecturer, and seems to care about how his students do because he's constantly asking for feedback. Aside from that, the course material is incredibly disorganized and knowing what's expected of you is almost impossible to find out. Expect assignments and labs that are >20hr long.
Rating # 10
Overview:
  • Course: ENCM511
  • Grade Received: A-
  • Overall Rating: 4.0
  • Course Difficulty: 4.0
  • For Credit: Yes
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: Yes
  • Attendance: Not Mandatory
Comment:
Dr. Smith runs his classes I think in a manner that is very similar to what you might experience in the real world, whether most of it is intended or not. You often need to thoroughly use your resources and really apply yourself. Don't expect straight forward answers. This class was definitely one of the better ones in preparing me for my career.
Rating # 11
Overview:
  • Course: ENCM511
  • Grade Received: Not sure yet
  • Overall Rating: 1.0
  • Course Difficulty: 4.0
  • For Credit: Yes
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: No
  • Attendance: N/A
Comment:
Avoid taking class with this class with Dr. Smith. His teaching style is to ramble about something, tangent, ramble, etc. The assignments and labs waste your time - they don't test difficult concepts, but rather test your patience because you never know what they want you to do. It's a shame, because he's obviously smart and a pretty nice dude.
Rating # 12
Overview:
  • Course: ENCM511
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 1.0
  • Course Difficulty: 5.0
  • For Credit: Yes
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: No
  • Attendance: Not Mandatory
Comment:
If a course is like a program... This one is a virus... And its full of errors. Mike does everything imaginable to interfere with your ability to learn. Even though you probably will not fail, you might even get a good grade, it will waste too much time with very little to nothing learned at the end. Ask the Dean to do the CPSC version instead!!
Rating # 13
Overview:
  • Course: ENCM511
  • Grade Received: A+
  • Overall Rating: 1.0
  • Course Difficulty: 5.0
  • For Credit: Yes
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: No
  • Attendance: Mandatory
Comment:
Maybe I WAIL'ed too much, but when it was time to WAIN, I hadn't learned anything. Uh, sorry. He uses lots of acronyms, such as Worry About It Later/Now. Heavy on labs/assignments. Most of my time was spent trying to figure out what he wanted done. He was also hard to talk to - He'd try to guess what you were asking, get it wrong, then move on.
Rating # 14
Overview:
  • Course: ENCM511
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 1.0
  • Course Difficulty: 5.0
  • For Credit: Yes
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: No
  • Attendance: Mandatory
Comment:
I wish I had something nice to say about Dr. Smith. Horrible prof. The course has close to zero documentation and most of the time you can't figure out what he wants you to do in the labs or assignments. Almost zero help is available outside of the class and the lab time is not even close to sufficient. His slides are also useless and confusing.
Rating # 15
Overview:
  • Course: ENCM511
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 3.5
  • Course Difficulty: 4.0
  • For Credit: Yes
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: Mandatory
Comment:
This is not your average class. If you don't want to succeed in it, you won't. Smith is not there to boost your GPA, he's there to help prepare you for real life software engineering. That being said, putting in lots of time and effort will be sure to get you an A. He likes to have fun and can get irritating, but he cares about all his students.
Rating # 16
Overview:
  • Course: ENCM511
  • Grade Received: A
  • Overall Rating: 4.0
  • Course Difficulty: 1.0
  • For Credit: Yes
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: Mandatory
Comment:
This person is an amazing man. He listens to your feelings, all your problems, and truly goes out of his way to help his students. If you try, and show your effort, he will ensure that you get an A. I was struggling at the start and when I approached him he helped me significantly and pulled my mark up big time. I wish I could have him more.
Rating # 17
Overview:
  • Course: ENCM511
  • Grade Received: A+
  • Overall Rating: 5.0
  • Course Difficulty: 3.0
  • For Credit: Yes
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: Mandatory
Comment:
FUNNY BLOKE BUT MY GOD ARE HIS EXAMS TOUGH
Rating # 18
Overview:
  • Course: ENCM511
  • Grade Received: A-
  • Overall Rating: 4.0
  • Course Difficulty: 2.0
  • For Credit: Yes
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: Mandatory
Comment:
Dr. Smith is an amazing professor. His labs and assignments are the focus. They are quite a lot of work but really help you gain understanding of the material. He's very helpful too. The only problem with the course is the organization: a lot of time is wasted trying to figure out his mistakes and find notes, when you could be working ahead.
Rating # 19
Overview:
  • Course: 511
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 1.5
  • Course Difficulty: 4.0
  • For Credit: Yes
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: N/A
Comment:
Funny and enthusiastic guy, and it's clear he knows his topic. However, his lack of teaching skills is frightening. There is no textbook for the course, so good luck finding additional information to actually learn. In the lectures, no facts are taught all he does is show slides upon slides of code that has no meaning without a context.
Rating # 20
Overview:
  • Course: ENCM511
  • Grade Received: N/A
  • Overall Rating: 3.5
  • Course Difficulty: 2.0
  • For Credit: N/A
  • Textbook Used: No
  • Would Take Again: N/A
  • Attendance: N/A
Comment:
He is the best! really funny guy. you learn a lot from him, not just about embedded system
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