Reviews for Laurence Alan Herman
Average Rating:| NotAnonymous Course: CMSC216 Grade Expected: May 3, 2012, 3:06 pm | I had him last year for a class and did poorly, and back then I would have given him one or two stars.. this semester though, he seems to have improved a lot. He definitely intelligent, and knows the coursework and material really well. He often asks questions and encourages students to participate, and his lectures are a lot more entertaining now than they were back then. However, he can be dickish and may be hard to approach, but he's far from the "useless lecher" that the other reviews make him out to be. Things to remember: 1) if you go in there expecting to hate the class because he's cocky, monotone, etc, you've pretty much just made a self-fulfilling prophecy. 2) he's not the "best teacher ever", but he's really far from the worst. 3) Call him MISTER Herman. He is not a professor, and he is not a doctor. He gets surprisingly touchy about this. |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC102 Grade Expected: B- April 28, 2012, 3:58 pm | If you have to take a sequence course for your major that is not related to Computer Science. Do NOT take CMSC102 with Larry Herman. First off, this was his first year teach this course so he didn't know what he was doing or how to present the material. Just like the other reviews state, he start off rambling on and on about something in his life (which of course is fine if he actually presented the material in a way we were paying attention). His monotone voice will just drag you away from the lecture. The material itself is interesting, but no where near interesting presented by Herman. He just jumps everywhere and the notes he posts online aren't even what he explains in class or goes into detail about. Then when it comes to exam time, the material there were things he never went through. Btw, don't expect reviews by him for the exams. The only thing that will save your grade in this class are the 6 projects in class, just because you can't get them wrong. He doesn't grade anything, its all the TA (who you never meet). The only thing that makes you come to class are his clickers, which are irrelevant questions. There was one point where everyone complained about his way of teaching and the difficulty of the course because of how he taught, but he laughed it off and didn't address it. Just save yourself a semester of a 1hr30min class. |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC106 Grade Expected: A December 24, 2011, 2:11 pm | I read the reviews below before taking 106 with herman and was very surprised. I thought he did an excellent job teaching the course. Granted 106 is supposed to be easy so maybe that is why I thought he did a good job. I almost never had to open the textbook because all I had to do was listen to lecture and then I would have everything I needed to do the projects. He was mildly funny and kept the class engaging. To be honest if you actually go to class arrive on time and pay attention you should be able to learn from him. The projects were nit-picky, but that is because he has a program grade them to ensure accuracy (But I must say most of the projects were pretty easy for me, although many of my classmates struggled). The tests were a little more difficult just because I find it hard to write code on paper (you have to write a short program for most tests). Quizzes in discussion were announced and generally just quickly reviewing the previous two lectures would give you enough information to get ~36/40 on the quiz. Seriously if Herman is the worst lecturer in the CS department then the department must have the best lecturers on campus because he really wasn't that bad. P.S. go to class and pay attention it really helps even if you don't think it does. I also took CMSC131 with Herman: Same as above pretty much, a lot of people just have no logic and do not belong in computer programming classes (or the major). Logic cannot be taught, and if you don't have any then go away, you are annoying to the rest of us that can actually figure things out. Seriously, he does a good job, if you don't excel in his class it's not his fault, you just aren't capable of the programming logic approaches, which is okay, just change majors. For CMSC131 Do not buy the textbook, I always buy my textbooks, but the Java book is a waste of money, EVERYTHING IS ONLINE: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/index.html |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC132 Grade Expected: December 4, 2011, 12:45 pm | Insufferable prick. |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC131 Grade Expected: A+ November 2, 2011, 6:25 pm | Wow - these reviews are funny to read. Larry is extremely precise with the material (reason for long project descriptions, too), which makes learning what the code does really easy, and he's very clear about how he wants to be interacted with as an instructor and what he expects of you. If you keep your cell phone away, come to class and actually pay attention, and go to his office hours when you want to talk to him, he's just fine. He seemed a bit harsh on students with certain types of questions at first, but if you get used to the fact that that's just his manner and don't ask questions that he's already answered when you weren't paying attention, no big deal. He's pretty amusing as well, just has a dry sense of humor and is a little bit awkward. I would definitely take a class with him again. |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC132 Grade Expected: May 24, 2011, 8:08 am | Lectures: In most of his classes, he starts out by talking about something in his life (or ends up talking about it), which is fine - if I weren't paying for classes! It takes up time, and sometimes he doesn't go over as much as he wanted. He absolutely hates if someone's using a laptop or phone in class, which is understandable...but he sounds like a douchebag when he asks someone to put it away. He usually goes over his slides by reading them, and not really adding to them. If he does add to them, write it down, cause his quizzes and tests are nitpicky. He rarely writes on the board, and if he does, make sure you're in the front, cause he writes small ! Quizzes: I don't think he writes his own quizzes. The set up of the worksheets usually have nothing to do with the quizzes. Don't focus on what the worksheets are on, cause most likely, it's not gonna be on the quiz. There were only 2 times where the class knew what the quizzes were on. He doesn't even really give the TAs a heads up on anything, so the TAs are clueless until the day of the quizzes. Also, most of the time, the average on the quizzes are around 20-25 points out of 40, so don't give up... Homework & Projects: Don't ever ever turn anything in the night it's due. If the server goes down, he may or may not give an extension. Try to get all the points on the Homework, cause that will help your grade. Even though you only need to get HALF of your tests working on the projects, try to get 60-70%, cause his TAs might rule out some of the public tests that you *thought* you passed. Plus, going above the minimum means you'll probably be above the curve. Try to get some secret tests done, too....cause some people don't do those, and that's about 30 points. TA: Try not to get Gleneesha, cause she'll just point on the board at code and expect you to understand what it does. She doesn't really explain anything, and if she does, it's not thorough. It makes me think she doesn't know anything. Granted, I heard all TAs sucked, especially for CS, but it'd be nice to have someone who DIDN'T have to Google some answers in front of you... Books: Don't bother buying them. I bought them halfway through the semester thinking they'll help, but I have yet to actually use them. Half the class didn't buy any, and they're doing fine. He also asked the class (of those who bought them) if they were useful, and everyone said no. Don't bother. |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC212 Grade Expected: A May 16, 2011, 6:53 pm | A friend of mine put it really well: He's not a bad guy. He's not trying to make his students fail. He just has an inherent, undeniable need for everything to be rigid and exact. Projects were easy. Tests were nitpicky and thus difficult. Lectures weren't difficult to follow, but were difficult to learn from, if that makes any sense. To do well in his classes you have to adapt to how he teaches. Pay a lot of attention to detail. Don't dismiss anything as something that he "probably won't test" because he probably will. Just understanding the concepts won't get you very far. |
| awesomeblosom Course: CMSC132 Grade Expected: A February 21, 2011, 12:18 pm | I'd taken this class before in high school, so I was decently well off. If I hadn't taken the class before, it wouldn't have gone so well. Herman is a very dry teacher, who doesn't teach very well. He knows his stuff, he just doesn't know how to convey it very well. I'd advise against taking him for higher level classes. Book is not neccessary, just look things up on the internet. |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC132 Grade Expected: D January 26, 2011, 10:21 am | Larry Herman is THE WORST Comp. Sci. teacher I have ever had. Please stay away from him, and avoid him at all costs. He has a very monotone voice and he will put you to sleep no matter what. He is a very cocky professor and expects the worst from students. He would always expect students to answer his questions wrong, but they would say the right answer so then he would reword the question so no one would understand it. He always emphasized that the Honors class did way better than us, but the fact is that they did better because he was not teaching the Honors section. Quizzes averaged around the 50-60% in our class, and it was solely because he does not explain concepts well. If you have no choice but to take the class with him, expect a lot of self-teaching and expect a lot of stress. He assigns projects that are always half-assed and is always revising them up to the last second. He says "Umm...um...um..." a lot, and he makes awkward comments to girls. Overall, he is a very awkward person and he seems to be the only uninteresting Comp. Sci. professor. Quizzes are easy if you learn everything by yourself. Exams are graded in a strict manner so it is really hard to get a decent grade on the exams (1 midterm, and the final). Besides wasting time trying to figure out how the projection boards work, he goes off in tangents. Most of the class stopped attending his lectures, so he started taking attendance. So people went to the lectures just to sign the attendance sheet. He will call you out if you have your laptop out, if you are sitting in the very back, if you come to class late, or if you leave early. He is extremely annoying and rarely sympathizes with you (except if you are a girl). |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC132 Grade Expected: A January 17, 2011, 2:56 pm | Herman is a good lecturer. I had taken AP Comp Sci AB and gotten a 5 coming into this class, so I knew a decent amount of the material beforehand. His lectures are generally well done and he knows what he is talking about. He has some weird habits though. Whenever something goes wrong he will always make up like 100 excuses as to why it's not his fault. He's kind of pompous, but class was pretty enjoyable. The quizzes were pretty easy imo, but the class averages were always terrible (25-30). Look over the past couple lecture slides before the quiz!!! The midterm and final were both very fair. Homework & Projects: Do NOT wait until the night before it's due to start. Seriously, don't. The projects and homework are all doable, but they will take serious effort on your part. You will get stuck, you will have to redesign code, you will have to use the debugger, and you will have to read all the specifications beforehand. That being said, it is possible to do well on all the projects. I got 100% on all the public tests for projects. I can't comment on how the office hours works, I never had to go to them. TA: Gleneesha was a pretty terrible TA imo. I went to most of the discussion sections, but I only learned a couple things from them. The worksheets that they give you in discussion are useless, I would just use the time to study notes and work on projects. Books: Overpriced and not needed. The internet is the only resource you need. Overall: I thought the class was pretty good. Herman has gotten some pretty awful reviews but I think a lot of them are frustrated students who didn't put enough effort in the class. |
| sallen429 Course: CMSC132 Grade Expected: January 13, 2011, 11:23 am | Boring... Pedantic... Out of touch with students... Laurence is a crap CS teacher and avoid him if possible. He turned me off to the field of compsci and after his class I changed my major. |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC132 Grade Expected: December 19, 2010, 5:01 pm | Larry is easily one of the most boring professors the CS department has to offer. While some professors' tangents can be a nice break and funny...Larry's are not funny. He teaches in a way that, I think, is very hard to understand--and Java is already a very abstract concept. With less examples, and more powerpoint slides, you're almost on your own. If you end up with a crap TA...good luck. |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC132 Grade Expected: A- December 17, 2010, 6:49 pm | So larry is NOT a bad guy at all and he is sometimes very funny in class with his jokes during lecture, but beware if you have him prepare for lots and lots of stress. The beginning of this course proved to be very easy because before the midterm exam (end of october) all we had were 2 quizzes, 1 homework, and 1 project. Note that the grading system is sooooooo stupid that if you make a mistake that doesnt even make an impact on your work, you WILL lose alot of points. So be careful and read the directions because even if you show that you understand the problem and explain it very well, you will lose full credit if you dont follow the exact directions. That is what happened to me, i lost 2 letter grades on a quiz on something that stupid even though i clearly understood the problem. After the midterm he just threw everything at us at once, all the hws, projs, and quizzes giving us barely anytime, he had to give a hw and a prog at the same time over thanksgiving because he had to fit it all before the semester is over! I had no problem with this because i knew the material already but for those who dont know the material, your pretty much screwed. Also office hrs are always packed so go early if you need help. I took ap programming in high school and i understood every single topic in the class but yet i still couldnt get an A+. The reason is because of the grading again. It is just terrible and he is very slow at getting your work back. It is december 17 and only 40% of our grades have been posted. We still havent gotten back our proj 2,3,4 and hw 2,3 back yet which is the majority of our grade. Plus the TAs do not know what they are doing. Most of the time i think im smarter than them. If you want an A or even a B you must know the topic before you take the class, or else you are pretty much screwed. I had to go into office hours many times to correct some stuff they weren't clear on. One of the secret test was written wrong for project one and i had to argue it too and i still dont know if he changed it because he hasnt updated the grades yet. All programmers know that when comparing objects you either return a negative or postive number or zero. On the stupid secret test they wrote it so that it checked to see if you did -1,1 and 0. That is wrong and i had to tell Mr. Herman. Plus the submit server doesn't work all the time so turn in your projects early. The problem with not getting our many projs and hws back is the fact that we cant go in to see Mr. Herman to see what we did wrong cuz the semester is over!! so if i find out that they graded something wrong (which is very likely) contacting and arguing will prove to be so much pain. So over all this class will be easy yet stressful for those who know the subject and a horrible nightmare for those who dont know it well. So good luck to those taking this class!! You're going to need it haha |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC132 Grade Expected: December 1, 2010, 12:01 pm | While it is obvious that Larry Herman knows his stuff, classes weren't all that interesting and sometimes dragged on. His examples seem almost insulting - I think he would be able to get his points across quicker if he explained concepts using graphs and diagrams rather than drawing reluctant volunteers to the front to do something for him. He isn't a terrible person, not at all, but I also wish he would answer simple questions (such as small questions about the syllabus) via email. But I think he has the right to ask that project-related questions are asked during office hours, since it takes a while to sit down with someone and debug a program. My biggest problem with him though is that he started giving the projects late, meaning that we're getting one less project than the syllabus indicated and having back to back projects. And he takes forever to put up the lecture slides! I think it'd be better to put the slides up BEFORE the lecture and then editing them after! It would make it much easier for everyone. |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC212 Grade Expected: May 3, 2010, 4:37 pm | The way this guy lectures is not a problem. If you're focused and got enough sleep, you will probably be able to follow along well enough. It's the way he operates the class that is the problem. He does not answer emails. What business does this guy have teaching in a Computer Science department when he refuses to use one of the most basic facilities of a computer: email? It's not like he doesn't know how. He sends the style scores for your project and he will sometimes actually reply just to tell you NOT to send him emails. It doesn't really make much sense. His course web site is not very helpful. The syllabus is on there with the exam dates, but if he changes them you won't know unless you go to class. And he probably will change them. He won't announce it on the page. He won't send an email about it. So if you skip a few classes you can end up missing an exam. I suppose it's somewhat clever to passively force students to go to class, but what boggles my mind is that he does update the front page with info that has nothing to do with the class like "Techfest in CSI lobby." His lecture slides are useless. Which brings me to another point about the web page - You need a password to get in. You need a password to look at his useless slides. When the semester is over, the password stops working so you can't look at projects or anything from the previous semester as a reference. He puts a half-useless web page on lock down for no good reason. His tests and quizzes are essentially designed to make you lose points. They are filled with multiple choice or short answer trick questions that you pretty much have to memorize the answers to. You are NOT going to remember everything. It's impossible unless you dedicate your entire life to every word that comes out of his mouth and every trick question that could possibly be on the test. The projects are rough and time consuming, which is understandable. But this guy makes it worse. He sometimes doesn't post a project on the submit server or the public tests until a couple of days before it's due. He also changes the due dates and details, or corrects mistakes about the project almost at the last minute. I have a feeling he is probably procrastinating and making it all up as he goes along. Teachers for other programming classes don't seem to do this. This is the only programming teacher I've had so far who constantly has this problem. He takes too long to grade stuff. He leaves the responsibility of grading everything on the TAs, and they take forever to grade the project style worth 15% of the project grade. I don't blame them. They are students. They have their own classes to worry about too. This guy could at least grade some of them to speed things up. He curves everything at the end, but he takes forever to post stuff on the grade server. You wont have any idea what your true grade is. He doesn't post the class average. If what you currently see as your grade doesn't look good, you won't be able to know whether you are failing or not until the semester is over and there's nothing more you can do about it. So all in all, it's like he wants to make sure that everyone is as stressed out and in the dark as possible. And whatever research or non-teaching activities this guy is involved in is obviously far higher on his priority list than this class. Quite frankly, this is not a good learning environment. |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC132 Grade Expected: April 27, 2010, 10:59 pm | Herman did not make the class enjoyable whatsoever! I slept every single class until I discovered the Diamondback crossword puzzle. He needs to show more enthusiasm and be able to effectively teach the class. Also, he wasted a lot of time pulling teeth for random questions directed at the class. There was only one person in my class who actually was able to keep his eyes awake long enough to pay attention. And that guy just happens to be the biggest computer geek I've ever seen. He literally had the projects done two days after they were released. Everyone else just quietly and miserably failed. |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC212 Grade Expected: A December 28, 2009, 3:15 pm | Herman is an ok lecturer. As someone as said below, the material itself is very boring as you are just learning the C language, because a language is just a language, there's not really any way to make it exciting. Herman is also pretty fair in terms of the curve at the end of the semester. I had a low B according to my grades, but he ended up giving me an A. So it is definitely possible to do well in his course even if it seems like you are doing pretty bad, which it will. So you're probably wondering why I gave him 2 stars because so far my review has been ok. The reason is that he is probably the rudest teacher I have had so far in my time at CP. If you try to contact him in any way he will most likely come up with some terse, scathing reply that basically says "I hate you for contacting me. Just go away, you're wasting my time". I have heard so many stories from my friends of emails they have received from him that were completely out of line or times when they've gone to office hours and he blew them off or didn't help them at all. Also, Herman will try to make you fail at every possible chance. His quizzes and tests often have very specific questions designed to make people get the wrong answer. His project specs are almost always at least 8 pages long, all in paragraph format, just to make sure you miss some details that he can catch you on in the secret tests. For style grading, he tells the TA's that they can only take points off in increments of 2. So if you made some small mistake it's automatically at least 2 points off, not 1. The bottom line: Pros: In the end, your grade in Herman's class will probably be better than you expected since he curves a lot. Also, you will learn a lot of practical knowledge about makefiles and low level programming that will be useful in internships and you will become pretty good at C programming. Cons: You will be miserable throughout the entire semester because you will be working on 212 projects all the time, and you will get at most a C on all the quizzes, and you probably won't do as well on the tests as you do in other classes. And Herman will be there all the time, acting immature and being as rude and sneaky as possible. |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC212 Grade Expected: December 24, 2009, 3:23 am | This professor is the worse professor I have ever had. Its great that 212 will be discontinued after spring semester. If you are in 212 for the spring semester I beg you to GET OUT. He makes it hard to do well in your class. This semester he decided to put multiple-multiple choice on the test, everyone fails the quizzes, projects build (and you have to fix the prior one for the second to work), discussions don't help, and doesn't post the statistics of the class so you dont know if your failing above or below the curve. |
| snooki Course: CMSC212 Grade Expected: December 23, 2009, 9:25 am | Having taken the same class with him twice, I think some of the reviews here are probably out of sheer bitterness. Despite failing once and retaking the course, I really don't have any angst for the guy. The sexist remarks from other reviewers are unfounded. I'd say there's more difficulty in the material and lack of enthusiasm one can have for the material, but I wouldn't fault Larry for that. In all honesty, I think Larry was an okay lecturer. 212's material itself is pretty dry and bland (or at least low-level programming isn't that interesting to me). He really doesn't read completely off the slides, I think. I went to all of his lectures this semester vs. the previous semester and there definitely was a lot of stuff he mentioned verbally that shows up on quizzes and exams. This semester he had a no laptop in class policy which I do applaud him on. He really wants you to focus on the lectures which I'd say are pretty key to passing. Just reading the slides without going to class isn't going to work well. Oh, and be sure to actually read the textbook (unlike 131/132). It's quite helpful. The projects were pretty tough to get into. They aren't exactly interesting either. Gone are the days of the 131/132 pretty interfaces. He's very specific in his specs, and they turn out to be VERY long reads (pages of information). I find working backwards from the public tests he gives you and re-reading the sections specific to each individual functions help. And of course there's office hours which is unfortunately usually busier as the deadlines for the projects approach. The projects do consume quite a bit of time, so start early. Exams aren't too bad. He definitely asks random questions about things he might have barely touched on in class. These questions aren't worth a lot, but it is still annoying to lose those small points. This semester, he seemed to test less topics than we actually went over, which wasn't exactly a bad thing. I just wish some of the other things we learned had more purpose than just learning it for the sake of learning it. Some stuff didn't even show up in projects, for example. However, during lecture he does ask the class these random questions once in a while that nobody answers which often show up on quizzes or exams, so be alert for that. He prefers seeing you in person to ask even the simplest questions. Often you can ask him a question in lecture or via e-mail that could be answered in a sentence, but he says to come to office hours anyway. I've also heard of people who were told to come back later when they come to office hours, so he sometimes is hard to reach (allegedly, haven't witnessed it myself). The curve at the end of the semester is pretty generous though. Even getting a low 60's could possibly turn out to be a C. Of course the curve varies each semester, so your mileage may very. In all fairness, yes he's a bit rough around the edges and the material isn't exciting, but he and the class are basically the gatekeepers of you reaching the 300-level courses so learn to deal. |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC106 Grade Expected: A+ December 5, 2009, 11:34 am | 1. Larry Herman teaches at a snail's pace. And by that, I mean an elderly snail that has trouble being mobile. This class is a non-majors CS course, so it goes slower than most CS classes. But the pace at which Larry Herman explains things is simply intolerable, even for someone who has never encountered computer programming. Yet Herman does not even teach effectively. He follows the book closely but does not present the material in an effective manner. He writes long explanatory sentences on the board but does not actually describe what they mean. 2. He loves to make the class more irritating than necessary. He doesn't care about his students at all. I found discussion useless since I program in C and Java at my job but didn't feel prepared enough to test out of 131. However since unannounced quizzes were given in discussion, so I had to go. Yet Herman forbade the TA from telling ANYONE when the quizzes were. So each student was forced to either (a) go to every single discussion where the TA (who was horrendous, by the way) mumbled insensibly for an hour or (b) try to guess when the quizzes were and attend discussion on those days. Personally, I thought professors and TAs were supposed to make learning easier, NOT harder. 3. Tests and quizzes are fair and well written. 4. Projects are fair, but he has an annoying way of saying important things during lecture. For example, due date changes announced the day before Thanksgiving break. Too bad I had a plane to catch. And he never, EVER e-mails out these important little details. He WANTS you to come to class for some obscure reason (aka feed his pride), since his lectures are useless and boring. Clearly he cares more about you coming to his lecture than about you succeeding. 5. Projects and quizzes are not returned in a timely manner. Herman doesn't seem to realize that his TA is the worst grader possible, and when told so, he takes no action on it. 6. Class website is easy to use and well-organized. The textbook is useful. 7. He is a fair grader. |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC212 Grade Expected: B May 21, 2009, 10:36 am | This class is terrible. He is so boring and is just so proud of what little power he has, it is disgusting. I mean, every class is boring, so you can power through that, but the disrespect that comes with this man is intolerable. A few examples of his pompous nature: 1. We talked about revising a project due date, but never actually confirmed because he does not like to give the impression that he'll listen to our concerns. He never changed the due date anywhere, because he only wants people who come to class to know. So in desperation to finally know when it is due, a student emails him asking to confirm the due date, (a simple administrative question), he responds, "We discussed this in lecture. Don't email me." Well, how about you just answer the question? 2. Deducting points from your final grade for not picking up graded materials. Honestly, who cares? This is just another power trip for him. 3. The overall requirements. I have lost 10 points for minor errors in style(1 character past the 80 limit), and different versions of the compiler from the submit server can seriously mess your grade up, but that's something you can't really control. It's hard to avoid Herman, so just prepare yourself. |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC212 Grade Expected: B April 1, 2009, 2:30 pm | Jesus. He is quite possibly THE absolute worst and most boring professor in the history of western civilization. Reads right off the lecture slides and does not really teach that effectively to say the least. Favors girls, probably because he cannot hide his lecherous tendencies. Projects were so freaking boring but the tests were fair. As other posters said, he is the definition of being inept socially, so do not approach him during office hours. I bear no hatred towards the man, but honestly - he is quite unassuming and horrendous at managing this course. If you are a girl (hot or not) you will get an A, no questions asked. Try to take this course with another professor... taking it with Herman is the definition of FOOLISH! |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC212 Grade Expected: B January 12, 2009, 1:06 pm | This guy is awful. Problem is, he owns 212. I went to the first 3-4 lectures, and that was it for the semester. He reads straight from his lecture slides, which are not updated anually. Quizzes for the most part were very bad because he focused on very specific issues. However, the tests weren't too bad, as they tended to cover the bulk of the material. Projects were okay except for the long project specs (14 pages +, easy to miss some of the details, and hard to get motivated to start them). Also, he updates project reqs right up until the project is due without pushing back the due date. MOST IMPORTANTLY: Larry Herman is NOT approachable. Don't bother going to his officer hours, sending him an email, or even talking to him after class. Stick with talking to the TA's. Recommendation: Avoid Larry Herman. |
| samolang Course: CMSC212 Grade Expected: B December 17, 2008, 4:25 pm | I don't know if it is possible to make 212 interesting, but I found his class to be incredibly boring. Too boring to pay attention more than half the time. You have to memorize a lot of stuff for the tests. Most of the stuff you learn will be reused when you take 311, so I would suggest actually taking the time to learn it. |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC106 Grade Expected: December 17, 2008, 1:35 pm | I thought he was great. His exams were fair, no trickery, and he gave many practice questions and all his old exams. The projects weren't hard, and he was extremely approachable during office hours. If you went to class and he knew you worked hard he was willing to help with anything. Although sometimes on the boring side, he is an effective instructor and taught difficult material to us non-computer types clearly. Other posters say he is partial to girls...I am a girl, which could have been the reason for my positive experience |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC212 Grade Expected: December 16, 2008, 8:56 am | terrible teacher and completely unapproachable. don't bother sending him emails or even asking him questions in office hours. the exams often included small details that he only mentioned once in class and was maybe on the lecture slides. the projects are revised many many times after they are posted and the secret tests, which are released after a project is due (or, a lot of times, are not released at all) are petty much impossible to pass (because the project descriptions are 15 pages long and the secret tests might test one small aspect barely mentioned in the project specs). AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!! |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC250 Grade Expected: August 6, 2008, 3:54 pm | I second that the guy is anal. You should avoid him as much as possible ...trust me , start planning your schedule from avoiding any of his classes ... You will regret the day you decided "Oh, well, this class fit into my schedule" |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC212 Grade Expected: C May 27, 2008, 5:09 pm | The GPA distribution doesn't really reflect the difficulty of his class. To compensate for the horrendous grades, he curves a C to around a 50%. Herman creates a sizeable portion of his tests on material he mentions in passing. The projects are often revised, many times uncomfortably close to the deadline. Unless you are either a girl or happen to personally know Herman, it is unlikely you will receive helpful information from him. Unless you nag him to death. Its not really possible to avoid his class, but I would be prepared to compensate with any of the above. Also, listen *closely* to his lecture slides. I hear most of the exam material is covered when nobody is listening. |
| pluralfacade Course: CMSC250 Grade Expected: B May 17, 2008, 3:01 pm | He was pretty good at teaching the material. However, appraoching him outside of class is out of the question. He just does not seem to want to help people, and even gets angry when you send him emails asking about the homework. Tests and quizzes were pretty fair though. |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC250 Grade Expected: February 13, 2008, 7:24 am | Herman is not a bad teacher; you will likely understand some material from lectures and take some solid knowledge away from the class. His tests were also quite fair in this class. He is, however, completely unapproachable before class, many times shrugs people off during office hours. He wouldn't even let me ask him if I could come to an earlier lecture session, because he was "too busy." He is also VERY partial to girls, often fawning and flirting. |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC212 Grade Expected: December 25, 2007, 3:11 am | I found his projects fair, but his tests were difficult because he tests you on non-important, very subtle things about the C language. Public tests for projects were sometimes incorrect. Was not very approachable before class. Takes him forever to get graded assignments returned. His lectures are boring and monotone. I wouldn't recommend him. |
| Anonymous Course: CMSC212 Grade Expected: B December 12, 2007, 2:52 pm | Just had Herman this semester, and he was OK...Previous poster is right about him being anal, but his class wasn't hard. The most annoying part was the projects - they were really time-consuming and he would change the specs even up to the day before the project was due. I learned a fair amount. Aced his exams, but only did average on the projects because there's no release testing and the secret tests are graded AFTER the final due date of the projects...made me miss 132 a little bit, lol. |