Matni is one of the few CS profs that seems to actually care about his students. His grading is tough and he knows it, but if you are having trouble in his class he will do everything he can to make sure you understand the material, and for that -- he's awesome. His lectures are also mildly entertaining and outside of class he's a chill guy.
The people giving Matni a low rating for CS16 are some of the softest college students I have ever seen. He genuinly cares about teaching the material as best as possible. I think most of the low ratings came from freshmen who have no idea how hard CS is going to get down the line. IT IS A NATURALLY HARD SUBJECT AND IT WILL ONLY GET HARDER.
Matni is a really nice man & genuinely cares about his students. His lectures are a little boring, but the information isn't too difficult at all. His tests were fair. I skimmed over the reading and did a minimal amount of studying for final/midterm. Also, he assigned 2 papers (both easy). Takes roll every lecture. I got an A-.
He's only taught one class at UCSB and I was in it. Some of the people in this class shocked me with the attitude they dished at him. Like welcome to college? It was gross and undeserved--this class was easy and Matni is a reasonable, kind and knowledgable teacher. SMFH. I barely did anything and got a B+. Just show up and do the FEW assignments...
Tons of homework. Hard midterm 2 with very limited time. Avoid if your are not CS major.
Rushes through powerpoints during lecture which is hard to grasp the concept for beginners but he posts the slides online after. 2 HW'S assigned per week which are due beginning of lecture. HW is easy if you read the textbook and go over lecture slides. 1 Lab every week which is challenging which takes time and effort. Final medium-difficult.
Too many HW assignments (16), he assigns too much work and does not grade it in time (midterm grades appear 4 weeks later, hw grades from week 3 appear week 10), TAs are useless, midterm 2 was challenging but it was curved. he isn't a harsh grader but some aspects could be improved. avoid him if you are not a CS major/interested in topic.
I don't understand the critical reviews. Matni is a clear lecturer, he answers questions and is somewhat active on Piazza. As long as you don't leave hw/labs to the last minute you should be OK. The first midterm average was about a 90, and he allowed a page of notes. He's approachable and knowledgeable about the subject material.
Lectures not very friendly towards CS beginners. Poor and little instructions on basic terminal commands and c++ editor. He prefers teaching with PPT than actual coding demonstration. TONS of work (2 written hws + 1 programming assignment per week). Exams are okay. Took me a lot of reading, googling, self-teaching to earned a good grade. AVOID!!!!
Avoid him if you can. Lots of confusions, too much work.