Tom Shermer - Simon Fraser University

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Tom Shermer - Simon Fraser University

Professor: Tom Shermer

Department: Computer Science

College: Simon Fraser University

Rating # 1

Overview:

Course: CMPT225
Grade Received: B+
Overall Rating: 4.0
Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Tom is a pretty understanding and good prof, as he understants the struggle of remote learning and mental health. However, the assignments for his class are very difficult (theres 6) and requires the ENTIRE week to work on if you dont have a strong understanding in C++. His midterm was terrible but he made the final fairly easier for students.

Rating # 2

Overview:

Course: CMPT225
Grade Received: A
Overall Rating: 5.0
Course Difficulty: 2.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: Yes
Would Take Again: Yes
Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Tom is very approachable for any questions over email/piazza and I appreciate that he has a sense of humour and understands that we have lives outside of school (reasonable deadlines + difficulty, etc.) Also, changing the grading criteria to favour assignments (60%) helped with the online format. The final (30%) was of a fair difficulty. Great guy!

Rating # 3

Overview:

Course: CMPT307
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:

Not sure why he pre-recorded everything. If there's no incentive to be in class, then students will cram instead of watching when they should. I couldn't bring myself to watch them all because he talks so slow and boring. Makes exam questions out of 10-20 marks but gives either full marks or a zero. Although I got an A- I self-studied a lot.

Rating # 4

Overview:

Course: CMPT225
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:

Extremely disinterested in online courses, practically reads verbatim off the slides. Gives no information about tests

Rating # 5

Overview:

Course: CMPT225
Grade Received: A-
Overall Rating: 3.0
Course Difficulty: 3.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: Yes
Would Take Again: Yes
Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Lectures are extremely dull but are useful. Assignments are good in length and difficulty. However, he does try to cover a lot of materials. Exams contain no surprises. He really knows the subject matter, but I feel he doesn't really care too much whether students could understand his delivery. Overall not the best teacher, but far from the worst.

Rating # 6

Overview:

Course: CMPT225
Grade Received: WD
Overall Rating: 1.0
Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

I have never experienced a teacher this bad in my life. How do you teach computer science without ever demonstrating a single program? No source code or example programs, only bits of pseudo code on the slides. His lectures are so dull I can barely get through the videos. His teaching leaves me more confused than I was before this class.

Rating # 7

Overview:

Course: CMPT379
Grade Received: N/A
Overall Rating: 1.0
Course Difficulty: 5.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: No
Would Take Again: No
Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Covid sucks, but online lectures are worse. Dry content and reading off slides for the entire semester is brutal. Thank goodness for 3x speed(no joke) as Tom is a slow talker. Proj. Itr. were brutal for amount of time req. and minimal resources available. This class will be ur life for 4 whole months. Exams were decent, But are only 20% of grade :(

Rating # 8

Overview:

Course: CMPT307
Grade Received: N/A
Overall Rating: 5.0
Course Difficulty: 4.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: Yes
Would Take Again: Yes
Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

some assignments have online solutions, and people get around 38/40 average for these assignments. final is fair

Rating # 9

Overview:

Course: CMPT307
Grade Received: N/A
Overall Rating: 1.0
Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Worst prof. Do you really want to pay hella expansive tuition fee just to hear a dude reads off his terrible slides word by word with absolutely no extra explanation nor context then gives unreasonable hard assignments????? SFU don't increase the tuition fee when you are just gonna hire someone to just read off the slides.

Rating # 10

Overview:

Course: CMPT307
Grade Received: N/A
Overall Rating: 1.0
Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

He exhibits zero passion when teaching. If you ACTUALLY have a passion for learning DON'T take his class -.- his super boring lectures provide zero value to your understanding and you have to watch them at 2x speed cause he talks so s l o w l y ! ! ! Skip taking class with him, he is a waste of your parents money lol.

Rating # 11

Overview:

Course: CMPT361
Grade Received: B+
Overall Rating: 5.0
Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

He will teach you what you need to know the hard way. But you will learn A LOT

Rating # 12

Overview:

Course: CMPT225
Grade Received: A
Overall Rating: 4.0
Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

I think Tom is very passionate about computer science as a subject, CMPT 225 just doesn't quite scratch the itch for him in terms of its content richness so he didn't seem very lively at lectures. He's happy to explain topics to you that you don't understand, and an overall good professor. I'm sure he's great for higher level courses.

Rating # 13

Overview:

Course: CMPT225
Grade Received: A+
Overall Rating: 4.0
Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Decent Prof. Lectures are somewhat boring. Assignments and tests are fair. Nothing crazy.

Rating # 14

Overview:

Course: CMPT225
Grade Received: N/A
Overall Rating: 3.0
Course Difficulty: 3.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: Yes
Would Take Again: Yes
Attendance: N/A

Comment:

He was okay. Most of the coursework was manageable.

Rating # 15

Overview:

Course: CMPT361
Grade Received: N/A
Overall Rating: 4.0
Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Tom is a strong believer that the best way to learn how something works is by implementing it. In this course, we started with a setPixel() method, and ended it with an implementation of a 3D model renderer (subset of .obj files) and a graphics specification language for composing scenes. It was a lot of work, but was well worth it.

Rating # 16

Overview:

Course: CMPT361
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:

3 assignments, 2 week deadlines that required working 20 hours per day over both weekends. Somewhat disorganized lectures. Textbook makes no sense for the course. But, would 100% recommend. You'll learn a ton, and lectures are really entertaining. If you want to jump into coding a game, take with someone else though - very low-level concepts.

Rating # 17

Overview:

Course: CMPT379
Grade Received: N/A
Overall Rating: 4.0
Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Tom is probably one of the most accessible profs outside of class, you can stop him in the hall if you have a question and he'll help you. You need to attend lectures in order to get notes and information about assignments. Biggest downside is there is too much work (around 40-50 hours a week). Wish he would go more in depth with the theory though.

Rating # 18

Overview:

Course: CMPT379
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:

Take this class with him if you want your life to ONLY revolve around this 1 course. If you want to take more than 1 course, or work a job, or have any life outside this course, DO NOT even think about it. Only for people who live and breathe code.

Rating # 19

Overview:

Course: CMPT379
Grade Received: C+
Overall Rating: 2.5
Course Difficulty: 5.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: Yes
Would Take Again: N/A
Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Except to be spending 40 hours a week on homework. Ridiculously hard and is sometimes unclear on the board. Do not take the course with him.

Rating # 20

Overview:

Course: CMPT379
Grade Received: A-
Overall Rating: 4.0
Course Difficulty: 4.0

For Credit: Yes
Textbook Used: Yes
Would Take Again: N/A
Attendance: N/A

Comment:

CMPT379 Compiler is not easy. Prof. Shermer is good at explaining theoretical concepts in lecture. But before exams, practice how to do NFADFA, productions, and optimizations by hand. Later assignments build on your own code of previous, so bad practice hurts yourself. If possible, try not to take 379 with other heavy programming or group course.

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