Diba is an amazing professor. Her sole job is to teach undergraduate courses, and its easy to tell that she puts a lot of effort into structuring the class in a way that makes sense. She is a busy woman but makes herself accessible outside of class. Homework and labs were helpful, although programming assgnmts were tedious at times
She is very engaging and clearly loves teaching. The labs and projects are pretty easy since she gives you starter code, and if you go to office hours, she is helpful. Go to lecture though, since the slides she posts are not updated and do not necessarily reflect what she actually covers.
She is definitely good at teaching. Her class has many materials, in her words, that will be used for your future programming. The midterm and final enable you to bring a cheat sheet, which means you can write down the example codes so that you can get good grades on exams. Hw and labs are useful.
Professor Diba is funny and interesting, but she will give you lots of homework after class. Her lecture is not helpful and necessary, you can get a high score by reading textbook and her PowerPoint. She will give you 2 midterms and 1 final in a quarter. Her midterm is easy but final is pretty hard. Fortunately, she will curve your final score.
Hard Programming and final
Her lectures were really helpful and clearly outlined. Some of the labs and projects required a lot of outside consultation because the lecture material wasn't as advanced as the assignments. The only grading criteria was the homework, labs, project, and final, and there were no midterms, which was nice.
I took CS8 over the summer so it was over six weeks. You can tell that she really cares about her students but she would go on tangents and talk to us like we were third year comp sci majors instead of total beginners. I also think the difficulty between the exercises on Zybooks and her quizzes were astronomically different. She's really nice tho.
This class was manageable. The course structure was pretty easy with only 25% of your grade coming from Exams. The rest of the 75% can be earned pretty easily if you put in time and do the assignments. Lectures were long and boring with iClicker questions throughout. Final was manageable, with a sheet of notes allowed for the exam.
Very good professor.
The professor is really nice and easy to work with. All the homework and labs are on Zybooks witch which was an easy program to use. There are no midterm, just a final exam and project at the end of the quarter. The final exam is hard but the project is fun and easy and will help boost your grade.
10/10 had no midterms attendance mandatory but if you get a high final project grade itll replace your attendance grade online textbook easy to get an A great tas and office hours very helpful.
Her lectures were so helpful and I enjoyed listening to them. She uses iclicker to take attendance but some lectures were not mandatory. Grading expectations were clear. She uses an online textbook that is really helpful with learning the material. No quizzes or midterms but a final coding project and a written final. Easy to get an A.
A genuinely sweet woman who has a strong passion for computer science. All the homework was through an online textbook, which consisted of labs. There were no midterms or quizzes, which may seem good, but it never really challenged me to keep up to date with studying. Got an F on the final, but that was mainly my fault since I didn't really study.
Prof Mirza is amazing. After taking this class, I actually enjoy CS. She made hard concepts easy to understand and her expectations for grading were clear. I think it was easy to get an A if you do all the assigned work and show up to lectures. Group project was cool too and TA's were great. Would definitely take again.
This was my first quarter at UCSB, and the professor and her TA staff did an amazing job. Prior to this class I had no experience in computer science, and did not enjoy it. Now I do enjoy computer science, thanks to this class. I highly recommend taking a course from this professor if you get the chance!
Extremely informative introductory Python class. If you do every assignment to reasonably, you will do well in this class. Class participation is unfortunately typically quite low, but she is nevertheless extremely caring and accommodating. Do not be scared if you have never coded before, this class is designed for you! Textbook is online.
she is so nice. most csw8 classes follow the same format which were just zybooks, weekly quizzes, and a final project. you can tell she cares and is passionate about teaching the subject.
Homework was hard, but fun. Concepts were definitely interesting and Mirza is the best at explaining. She the goat.
Online during the summer. The work was very doable and was always available for help during office hours. One short quiz every week with plenty of time to take it and online textbook assignment due every week on Sunday. Mandatory sections. Final is group project
Taking discrete math with Professor Mirza is really my great fortune! She explains things super clearly and her lectures are well-organized and inspiring. She is very accessible outside class and is super warm. She's always happy to help you with any course stuff or even your general academic life outside class. Surely one of the best professors!
Gives out reviews much simpler than the actual tests... Very good teaching but hard grading, no curves
Midterm was very long and extremely difficult compared to what was provided as practice in lecture and in labs/homework/midterm reviews. Final was decent but still challenging (written portion was barely like the final review provided). Don't take this class unless you're very confident in your coding skills.
Professor Mirza was an amazing professor; her lectures were mostly clear and she was willing to answer questions to clarify topics. She was very understanding and clearly cared about her students. I highly recommend taking this class with her.
She is an amazing professor that takes care of students. The workload is average and her lectures are insightful and engaging.
