Darin Goldstein - California State University Long Beach

Review your college professor, faculty and staff

Darin Goldstein - California State University Long Beach

Professor: Darin Goldstein

Department: Computer Science

College: California State University Long Beach

Rating # 1

Overview:

Course: CECS328
Grade Received: C
Overall Rating: 1.0
Course Difficulty: 5.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: No
Would Take Again: No
Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Professor Goldstein seems like a very nice guy and does a great job explaining concepts. However, don't let his calm demeanor fool you. This class is extremely hard to pass he will assure you that it is not that bad but do not let you're guard down. Projects are extremely difficult, did not do tests during covid but those were often hard too.

Rating # 2

Overview:

Course: CECS328
Grade Received: C-
Overall Rating: 3.0
Course Difficulty: 5.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: No
Would Take Again: No
Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Goldstein is a really smart professor but without pseudocode you will need to read the book to see some pseudocode to understand 100% how everything works. His projects are extremely difficult so you will struggle. He doesn't allow any collaborations and you can't even ask the lab professors, only him about any programming questions.

Rating # 3

Overview:

Course: CECS328
Grade Received: N/A
Overall Rating: 1.0
Course Difficulty: 5.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: Yes
Would Take Again: No
Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

I am very disappointed with this class. The projects were insanely difficult and you are not allowed to talk to anyone about them at all. Not even your lab professor, not even the tutoring center, or else he calls it cheating and you fail. What's the point of paying all this tuition to have a teacher who won't let you learn? Avoid at all costs.

Rating # 4

Overview:

Course: CECS328
Grade Received: A
Overall Rating: 1.0
Course Difficulty: 5.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: No
Would Take Again: No
Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Easiest class to pass, hardest for your GPA. I suggest you take 229 and 228 as many of his assignments are based on concepts you learn in those classes. Don't cheat and always assume you will get caught. Overall, terrible professor. What's the point of school if you're self learning anyways.

Rating # 5

Overview:

Course: CECS455
Grade Received: A
Overall Rating: 5.0
Course Difficulty: 4.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: No
Would Take Again: Yes
Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Goldstein is an excellent professor and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this class; he expects a lot from his students and will challenge you to earn your grade. His assignments can be very difficult, but they're not busy work- they're well worth the effort put in and will improve your skills. Take him if you want your degree to mean something

Rating # 6

Overview:

Course: CECS328
Grade Received: Not sure yet
Overall Rating: 1.0
Course Difficulty: 4.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: No
Would Take Again: No
Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Most disrespectful professor I have ever had. Gives no feed back on any assignments and responds to questions with an arbitrary answer. Lectures are pointless and just regurgitated info with no experienced input. You just teach yourself in this class. If you already know algorithms you will do great.

Rating # 7

Overview:

Course: CECS328
Grade Received: N/A
Overall Rating: 1.0
Course Difficulty: 5.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: Yes
Would Take Again: No
Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Even C was 44%, only a few people survived til the end.

Rating # 8

Overview:

Course: CECS328
Grade Received: A
Overall Rating: 5.0
Course Difficulty: 5.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: No
Would Take Again: Yes
Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Okay, I was in honors section and managed to come out with an A. Goldstein taught at UC Berkeley and will give you Berkeley level assignments. To pass: don't skip, do the optional homework before the projects as they contain hints. Start hw as ASAP and go to him for conceptual questions. If you're a good student, you will pass and benefit greatly.

Rating # 9

Overview:

Course: CECS328
Grade Received: B
Overall Rating: 1.0
Course Difficulty: 5.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: Yes
Would Take Again: No
Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

His 328 class is absolutely the hardest class I've taken. He gives coding assignments "based" on his lectures but not really. I paced for weeks trying to figure some out only to get 0s. You're not allowed to ask a tutor, other students, consult other books besides the one required... If you're not smart enough oh well. Avoid.

Rating # 10

Overview:

Course: CECS328
Grade Received: N/A
Overall Rating: 2.0
Course Difficulty: 5.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: No
Would Take Again: No
Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Grade is based on 6 projects. Only slightly related to lectures & require lots of outside research, except, you aren't allowed to get help from ANYWHERE except from his lectures and the book. He runs your code through 2 AI at end of semester and if he finds you used any other resource, he considers that cheating, fails you, and reports you. Nice.

Rating # 11

Overview:

Course: CECS328
Grade Received: WD
Overall Rating: 1.0
Course Difficulty: 5.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: No
Would Take Again: No
Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Genius computer scientist, terrible professor. Will not assist you outside of class when it comes to projects. Expects 0 collaboration with other students. Explanations of concepts in lecture are too brief, rushes lectures which leads to confusion on hw. Makes fun of students who don't know (x) topic. Goldstein 4 328 was the worst choice ever.

Rating # 12

Overview:

Course: CECS328
Grade Received: N/A
Overall Rating: 1.0
Course Difficulty: 5.0

For Credit: No
Textbook Used: No
Would Take Again: No
Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

He gives 4 HUGE projects and only one of them is on something he teaches in class. The other 3 literally has nothing to do with anything. He runs a plagiarism check at the end of the class on those projects. Your grade is dependant on those projects. If you put 200 hours on a project and can't solve it then you get 0 points. No partial credit. BAD

Rating # 13

Overview:

Course: CECS328
Grade Received: A
Overall Rating: 5.0
Course Difficulty: 2.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: No
Would Take Again: Yes
Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

This is a review for a hybrid version of CECS 328 and CECS 328 Honors. Well, because the CS department at CSULB is somewhat disfunctional, Goldstein's honors 328 section ended up with mostly non honors students. To accommodate these non honors students, Goldstein canceled the programming projects for the entire course, which made class easy.

Rating # 14

Overview:

Course: CECS328
Grade Received: A+
Overall Rating: 5.0
Course Difficulty: 4.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: No
Would Take Again: Yes
Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Extremely smart, and incredibly fun if you're into the subject. Tests are very similar to the homework, so if you practice them enough, you'll do alright.

Rating # 15

Overview:

Course: CECS228
Grade Received: C
Overall Rating: 3.0
Course Difficulty: 4.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: No
Would Take Again: No
Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Smart & knows his stuff, but could explain things better. Only test grades and its on a curve so it's hard to get an A. Not planning to take him again

Rating # 16

Overview:

Course: CECS328
Grade Received: C
Overall Rating: 4.0
Course Difficulty: 4.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: No
Would Take Again: Yes
Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Goldstein is a solid professor. This was his 1st time teaching non-honors 328, but he made it work. Graded entirely off 3 midterms (3rd midterm is the final); each midterm was VERY SIMILAR to the homework questions, so make sure to do all the homework questions! He's a genuine guy and we would have chill, non-cs related discussions before class

Rating # 17

Overview:

Course: CECS455
Grade Received: N/A
Overall Rating: 5.0
Course Difficulty: 4.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: No
Would Take Again: Yes
Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Darin is a great teacher. His assignments are super difficult, but he's upfront about it. He makes the content interesting and his genuine enthusiasm for the subject matter is contagious. During lectures, he'll spend as much time as students need in order to answer questions. He's also super laid back about attendance.

Rating # 18

Overview:

Course: CECS328
Grade Received: B
Overall Rating: 5.0
Course Difficulty: 5.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: No
Would Take Again: Yes
Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

He is no doubt a master of his subject. A great professor that you will most definitely learn a lot from. The class is graded on 8 programming assignments and a final. Class is curved to the highest students (my grade went up 20% after the curve). Really funny guy, interesting lecturer, overall a great class. Hard class but extremely worth it.

Rating # 19

Overview:

Course: CECS328
Grade Received: B
Overall Rating: 5.0
Course Difficulty: 5.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: Yes
Would Take Again: Yes
Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Take Darin's classes if you feel like the classes you've taken so far are a joke. Because his classes are no joke. You will work hard for your grade, you will be going against your classmates for your grade. But it's truly rewarding going through the process. If you want to learn algorithms in a fun but challenging way, take Dr. Darin Goldstein.

Rating # 20

Overview:

Course: CECS328
Grade Received: N/A
Overall Rating: 4.0
Course Difficulty: 5.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: No
Would Take Again: No
Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Class is based off of 8 programming projects and a final (30% of grade). You are not allowed to speak to anyone about the programming project AT ALL. His programming projects (written in Java) are hard.. like EXTREMELY HARD. He has homework posted online (not for credit) but final consisted of problems from the homework.

Add Your Review Below:

Search Professors:

Welcome:

Before signing up for classes every students should gather as much information as possible to make a decision on which professors as well as which courses to take. This website will help you make this decision easier.

Here, the students can rate, research and cross-reference the overall performances of the professors to select the best ones, and always be informed and up-to-date with what’s important.

Join the fun! Visit all pages and get all the information you need to choose the best class and best professor that you’ll enjoy listening to and learning from.

Our Friendly Sponsor:

Schools:

Our Friendly Sponsor: