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BOYLAND P

Peter Boyland

20 reviews
Lots of homework Tough grader Graded by few things Get ready to read Participation matters Accessible outside class Amazing lectures Clear grading criteria Inspirational Beware of pop quizzes
Past quarters

None

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CMPSC 24 Boyland P Fall 2025 Total: 53
CMPSC 24 Boyland P Summer 2025 Total: 15
CMPSC 138 Boyland P Spring 2024 Total: 153
CMPSC 138 Boyland P Summer 2023 Total: 17
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CMPSC24 . Boyland P A Month Ago

Boyland literally gives you a free A and teaches you the content for the next three classes. Everyone else who left a 1 review is geeked.

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CMPSC24 . Boyland P 2 Months Ago

Bad lecturer and class is poorly organized, self studied basically the whole course. Homework is hard af but doable. Content is pretty easy to understand and if you complete the homework and ace the 2-3 question quizzes every week you're gonna get an A. You can skip the midterm and final if you don't gpt the homeworks and do good on quizzes.

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CMPSC24 . Boyland P 2 Months Ago

At the start of the quarter, he said that we would have eight hws which would be worth 64% of our grade. At the end of the quarter, we have received 5 each taking at least two days to complete. Each time he would say during lectures that the hw would be posted later that day and without fail they would be posted 2-4 days later.

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CS138 . Boyland P 1 Year, 6 Months Ago

Good guy, but don't know how to teach

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CS138 . Boyland P 1 Year, 8 Months Ago

The instructor taught these unintuitive abstract concepts very well. I certainly had to read a textbook and meditate a lot on homework questions. It was time consuming, but I feel my brain got stretched a lot. The experience was similar to some pure math courses that require a lot of meditation. You get to program Turing Machines!

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CS138 . Boyland P 1 Year, 8 Months Ago

Class was just horribly organized. He never seemed like he was ready to teach us. The daily quizzes weren't that bad, but the homework was extremely difficult.They were very long and harder than anything taught in class. His lectures were also at such a low level and incomprehensible for the homework. Did curve HW. TAs were a godsend in this class.

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CS138 . Boyland P 1 Year, 8 Months Ago

He's genuinely nice guy and wishes us for success. He always made sure to adjust hw by dropping questions or curving and a no harm optional final to help our grades. His hw was extremely hard, you will have to camp at office hours and his teaching style made it hard to understand the material.

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CS138 . Boyland P 1 Year, 8 Months Ago

Professor genuinely wants students to succeed, but still needs help structuring the class. Giving a 4 because he gave us extra credit, made a final where it would only raise our grades, and pretty easy quizzes.

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CS138 . Boyland P 1 Year, 8 Months Ago

Homework is insanely difficult for the content that we are "taught" during lectures. TA had to write a guide on "how not to get cooked" in the class if that says anything.

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CS138 . Boyland P 1 Year, 9 Months Ago

The ability to teach is more than speaking in front of a lecture hall. He is so unorganized it is hard to succeed and he does not provide you with the resources necessary to do well in his class either. The learning is carried by the TAs and your class peers on Piazza.

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CS138 . Boyland P 1 Year, 9 Months Ago

I have an A+ in the class and I love the subject, and even I know this guy is NOT ready to be a professor whatsoever. He is kind, passionate, and skilled, but he consistently fails to teach, organize his class, command a room, or communicate effectively. He provides very little information / clarification to students and TAs. Everyone is confused.

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CS138 . Boyland P 1 Year, 9 Months Ago

Should've dropped this class. Feels like a waste of time because I'm not really learning anything. It's a shame, because there are some beautiful topics. This class is ruining them for me. 2x/week quizzes are easy. Homework is hard, sometimes unreasonably tedious. Lectures are disorganized: MS paint, terrible PPTs, no actual writing on the board

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