Svetlana Levitan

I can't believe the previous reviewer gave this pinhead a B for a grade. We just got our midterm results back, and all I can say is, Hasta la vista, baby!!! I am OUTTA THAT BITCH'S CLASS........ She covers an entire semester's material in about half that time in the summer.....doesn't she understand how difficult a course this is??? There's NO WAY to cover a whole (regular) semester computer class in the summer session..... And I don't appreciate her asking the class whether we had any questions, and when we don't she does indeed say "Too Bad!!" I felt that that was a slap in the face, and I do NOT ascribe it to some kinda cultural difference, like the previous reviewer did (who must be high on drugs to have been so kind to her in revewing her........ doesn't that person care that he/she is out almost $ 400 for the class??????).

If she thinks that American students are stupid, she's welcome to go back to Russia, where everyone is a brain surgeon genius, and where everybody can do computer programming in their sleep.

I have just withdrawn from this (summer) class, prior to the offering of the first midterm. I would like to share my experiences with anyone considering taking either (1) this specific class, CS 304 DATA STRUCTURES or (2) this instructor.

Professor Svetlana Levitan is a "Visiting Lecturer" for the Computer Science Dept. She hails from the University of Maryland at College Park, and before that from Moscow, Russia.

http://www.neiu.edu/~slevitan/index.html

I would like to review (1) her teaching worthiness and (2) the class, as it was offered during the Summer semester.

(1) As to her teaching abilities, I believe that she is, in general, a solid instructor, albeit a bit too aggressive in her teaching goals.

(a) She gives a quiz first thing at the beginning of the class, and it relates to the material taught at the last class. The quizzes are fair in content and difficulty. GOOD.

(b) She is always available, either after class for an hour, during office hours three times a week, or even responding to students via e-mail (VERY FAST turnaround time here). EXCELLENT.

(c) Although she has the slightest of accents (Russian), her English is EXCELLENT and in no way interfered with her ability to lecture and explain concepts. She preferred to start her lectures by using the PowerPoint "movies" (as she called them), and then, after the first break, went to the blackboard. ****The only item of note is that she would occasionally ask the class if we had any questions, and after we did not say anything, she would then say "Too bad!" (I chalked this up to a cultural difference, lost mostly in translation.)**** GOOD.

(d) Unfortunately, I withdrew prior to the first midterm (explanations soon), but from what I gathered at my last class, it would have been a multiple choice exam, given in the last hour of class. It probably will be fair, given the content of her quizzes and the amount of whining and groaning offered up by my fellow classmates. GOOD.

(e) Programming projects were probably reasonably fair and in line with what one should expect from this class. However, everyone agreed that they were very difficult and very time-consuming. They had to work (of course) for anything more than 70% grade. GOOD.

(f) If there were any negatives, it would have to be the amount of material that we were tasked (yes, tasked) to cover in the Summer semester. She was determined to cover nearly the entire class text, as shown in the syllabus. ****(I believe that, although this is an admirable goal, it probably is unrealistic given the fact that Summer semester is only 11 weeks long, and a regular semester is 16 weeks long (not including holidays).)**** VERY POOR.

So, all in all, she's a solid instructor. Her teaching skills are strong. ******************************************** (2) Unfortunately, a number of factors came together to convince me to drop the class and to take it at a later date, perhaps next year. (Definitely, never again in the Summer!)

(a) The Computer Science Department did not have a scheduled tutor for this class!!!! Early on, I was told that there was no money in the budget, but that there would be tutors available after July 1 (almost the end of the Summer semester!!!). They eventually got someone, Mr. Doan Nguyen. This guy was incompetent! My classmates and I asked him for help, and he didn't even know what variable type "size_t" was!!! To me, he asked to see my class text, found the section corresponding to my question, and then turned to me and said "See! Here it is! Look in your book!" and walked away. TERRIBLE!!!!!!

(b) Data Structures is acknowledged to be the most difficult of the Computer Science offerings. Trying to teach the same amount of material in a Summer semester (11 weeks) as in a regular semester (16 weeks) is unreasonable and unrealistic. I looked around and gauged the looks of despair of my fellow classmates, and even discussed with many of them the issue of withdrawing from the class. I can almost guarantee with certainty a very large percentage of the class will DROP the class after the first midterm. Everyone (myself included) felt VERY OVERWHELMED by both the amount of material and the pace at which it was covered. TERRIBLE!!!!!

(c) For all her positive points, Professor Levitan should have taken the difficulty of this class in consideration when desiging her syllabus. Sure, we chose to take this class in the Summer, but the whole idea is to write programs that work. If we can't get them to work, you can't really prove that we learned the material!!! VERY POOR. ********************************************* FINAL RECOMMENDATION: Professor Levitan is a solid professor, but never take her in the Summer OR CS 304 DATA STRUCTURES in the Summer. ******************************************** The Computer Science Dept. should seriously think about making CS 304 a two-part course - one semester would cover Chapters 1 - 6 thoroughly, and then a second semester would cover Chapters 7 - 12. ********************************************* The Computer Science Dept. should also get its act together re having COMPETENT tutors available for these classes.

THANK YOU.