I would have rated Beck a 5 on his lectures. He takes truly difficult lecture material and puts it in such a way that is at least digestible and his exams are fair. The issue is that he takes FOREVER to grade anything. It takes over 2 months to grade weekly projects. If you are ok with that I cannot recommend him enough for any class he teaches.

One of the best CS professors I've had at this university. Amazing lecturer, makes content super accessible and easy to understand. Extremely flexible professor, super helpful, cares about his students. If you can take a class with him, do it.

Make sure to use the format the professor mentioned in class when doing assignments! However, the exams are not very difficult, and the grading is fair.

Professor Hasti was amazing! He does a fantastic job presenting and articulating the material in an easy to understand way all the while being a super nice guy. Discrete is a hard course that will require a lot of your time no matter who you're taking it with so I'd go with Beck 10 times over. Also he sounds like Antvenom and it's really funny.

One of the most caring professors I've had. His lectures are detailed and cover all the material you need to know. The homework problems were fair, and the exams were mostly straight forward to prepare for, however, he would oftentimes be late to post assignments and give less than a week to do them. Feedback was minimal and took forever to grade.

It is moderately difficult however beck is the much better instructor to take rather than swanson. No question at all!

He's a great lecturer. Exams and homeworks were tough but more than fair. Also gave a very generous grade curve. Overall, it's a difficult course, but you get what you put into it. Only negative was how long it took for the homeworks to be graded and to receive feedback.

Beck has the ability to break down difficult content in a very understandable way, however the course organization was disappointing. Assignment grading was extremely slow, hence, we could never view feedback before exams. Deadlines were quite random making it difficult to stay on top of things and most of my friends including me missed deadlines.

If you plan to take CS 240, take it with this professor. As a person who took CS 200 with this class, Professor Hasti's lecture handouts were really helpful in understanding the content that was being discussed. The course material is difficult, but Hasti's assignments are very helpful for understanding discrete concepts.

lectures are very clear with recordings posted for the whole semester. weekly assignments with written problems, canvas quizzes, and zybooks. very well structured, I lowkey wish I actually went to class

Great lectures and he puts them online. Class structure was good.

Beck is a nice professor that is clearly very knowledgeable about the topics of compilers, but is incredibly boring during lecture. Thankfully, all of the lecture notes are posted online afterwards, making lecture optional, but effectively having to self-study the course due to the dullness of instruction is absolutely a negative.

Very organized and structured lectures. Explains things in a very understandable way. Content is tough and abstract but the exams are pretty easy

His lecture is great! His test has a strong relationship with his lecture notes and assignments. Sometimes the multiple choices are not easy, which require a deep thinking in definition

I love Beck Hasti. This class kicked my ass on the exams, but I feel like I have learned so much after it all. Beck Hasti has got to be top 5 professors of all time. You will not be disappointed.

The difference between Beck's 240 and the math department's 240 is incredible - this class is taught amazingly by Beck and will truly inspire you think and learn more about mathematical structures. The same can't be said for MATH-240 by a wide margin. It's not even close, take this class with Beck if you can.Course is curved so no stress.

Beck Hasti is probably the best professor (certainly in CS) at UW. This class was an incredible ride - I learned a ton, and always was able to get clarifications from the professor if needed, and exams/projects were difficult but had super clear criteria. There is not much more you could possibly want - 536 remains my favorite course at UW.

Beck clearly explains the content and apart from that, his homeworks and assignments are incredible and prepare you well for the midterms and finals. Overall, it is a fairly easy class as long as you don't slack off and fall behind. Plus, recorded lectures with no attendance, so it is great for preparation.

He da man

Best professor so far I had at UW Madison. Nice and caring person. He made compilers super easy and have reviewed a lot of concepts in computer science like NFA and CFG. I was having trouble understanding these topics before but Beck taught it so well in this class that it all made sense. Super rewarding class, project heavy but well worth it!

Nothing out-of-this-world but would definitely recommend him as a prof. He's been teaching 240 for a while and it shows in the organization of the class & the clarity of lectures and content. Reasonable workload and grading standards. Cool guy and cares about his students. One complaint: lecture material is often a near-repeat of readings.

Every lecture was incredible organized, and designed to where each lecture built upon the previous throughout the entire course. It was very well taught and Beck knows his stuff and how to teach it well.

Beck is a great professor who clearly cares for both the material and his students. Definitely take 240 in the fall with him.

Beck is the best professor you could take for CS240. He's caring and a really solid lecturer. The material for the class is incredibly boring and tedious but he does his absolute best despite that fact.

Beck is simply great. He makes a tedious class more approachable. Very organized class except for taking a long time to grade assignments. The class with Beck is more CS-orientated, so if you're a math major consider taking it with the math department. Note: I have found that the DvM readings were better than the lectures

Super caring professor that tries to make a difficult course fun for his students. Lectures are very clear, if a bit boring (not his fault, the content is just very dry).

Great professor, gives very good lectures and is clear with what will be on exams.

Prof Hasti is one of the best educators at UW Madison. His lectures can be boring at times, but he explains everything with great detail. He often recaps what you have learned in previous lectures so it is fresh in your mind when expanding on the topic. Make sure you write thorough proofs though, you will lose points for missing things.

Amazing professor! Great lectures, uploads them online and has good amount of information. GO TO OFFICE HOURS. They are very helpful. The TAs for this class are awful. Grade/help poorly. Tough grading, but you can fail everything and still pass.

Nice professor. I really enjoy his classes and learn a lot from him.

Beck is overall a good professor. His class was structured well and the notes are very clear. But he is a very boring speaker. He talks slowly and has very long pauses. I wish he did more examples in class however.

Incredibly clear lecturer, hw is easy if you just show up(or watch recordings at 2x bc tbh he overexplains and it's so slow). Beck makes it easy for you. However, the zybooks is worthless, goes over things prof says you don't need (everything you do need is in lecture) but gotta buy anyway for participation pts. Waste of $80. Mandatory discussions.

Pros: Recorded lectures w/ subtitles, No cumulative exams, Written assignment + canvas quiz per week, Content from (lecture, ZyBook, DvM), Piazza and OHs for Qs; Cons: Assignments graded very slowly, Grade cutoffs published @ end of sem, No practice exams; Class is p straightforward, just stay on top of lecture and do the HW correctly to learn

great professor, course was structured very well, albeit the course content was dry at times.

Fantastic professor. Clear grading criteria, amazing lectures. A very well-organized class apart from timeline on grading homework assignments - can take a lot of time to grade because most Homeworks are proof-based. The best professor I've had at UW-Madison, even though this class does not count as a core course for my major.

This is the kind of professor that changed the way I look at college. CS240 has been one of the hardest classes I have taken yet, but I don't think I will meet a prof that I have loved as much as I love Hasti. Also go to his office hours. They are amazing.

Beck is an incredibly kind professor and excellent lecturer. While discrete math is certainly not the most fun topic in the world, Beck teaches it well and attempts to make it as fun as they can. Expectations for exams, assignments, readings are very clear. For the most part, the workload is fair, although the written proof HW can take a long time.

Beck does a good job at making sure his students know what they're doing and if you ask for clarification he really does make a good effort to help out. He noticed a majority of class hadn't turned in an assignment during the morning on the night it was due, so he pushed back the deadline a day to give us more time. Wants what's best for us.

The material was super interesting, and Prof Hasti made it easy to understand. The class had a weekly written assignment of 2 questions that took a long time but really helped me understand. The material was something unlike any math I've seen, but it was interesting. The discussion wasn't helpful. But, go to office hours - they will help alot!

My experience with him for an online class was pretty average. The material was pretty boring but the tests weren't too bad and Beck always seemed pretty approachable if you needed help. The worst part was that we couldn't get through all the homework assignments in time so we had a bunch to do in the last week.

Beyond the fact that this class is boring, Beck's teaching is good but the homework assignments are ridiculously difficult. You have multiple submissions, but you can't see what questions you got wrong so that's absolutely no help. Pretty much expect teaching yourself everything

Beck seemed understanding at first when everyone told him having an exam 2 days after we had a project and quiz due- he reduced the weightage of the exam for the class. However, he barely reduced the number of questions in the exam but reduced the time to take it by more than half. This was very unfair as the last exam was based more off of math.

Beck was a great professor until classes moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Class became more work, and the final exam had the same number of questions as the midterm, but the time to take it was cut in HALF. I did not come close to finishing it. It was terrible.

This professor is the most inconsiderate human ever. During the crisis, everything moved online, all my other professors helped with the transition. This monstrosity of a human gives more work than all my other classes times 3 and made everything so difficult without giving much support. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS! ALSO, EXAMS ARE ON SUNDAY MORNINGS.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS ONLINE WITH HIM. The class was average before it went online, but once it went online after Covid it was a mess of random handouts, he didn't give or record lessons, and expected us to learn it all from some handouts. Additionally, there aren't many online sources to learn maple from. The last final was more work than the hw.

Super nice and helpful. Underrated jokes in lecture too. Im pretty terrible at matlab but Beck made the class pretty manageable.

Super nice and makes the material very easy to understand. The concepts are not very difficult, the most challenging part of the class is the homework which can take some time. Would definitely recommend.

Beck is a good person and a good lecturer, the material he teaches is the boring part. He is quick to respond to emails and is very helpful when you ask for help. He very much cares about the material. Discussions are useless IMO

Beck is a good person but his lectures are pretty boring and pretty useless. I stopped going to lecture after the 3rd week. He doesn't reply to emails and neither do the TA's. The homeworks are weird because no matter what you write, you will definitely lose points. The exams are on the easier side. Not a big curve.

He's an incredible professor, but the course content itself is just bland. Overall, he does a great job teaching it and can't really change the course. In order to do well, look over and make sure you understand the lecture notes you fill out in class.

He's alright but the class organization is counter-intuitive. Have to fill in lecture notes during class so missing is a big hassle. You "technically" aren't allowed to use outside resources for homeworks (only in class materials) so don't say anything about that. Otherwise it's a pretty standard class - homework each week, 3 exams, etc.

Nice guy, but horribly designed class. To be good at doing proofs, you need tons of practice. This is so difficult when there are no resources at all. I had to buy another book for proof problems that is severely lacking in this class. Classes are extremely dry. You get a handout each lecture. He goes over the handout. Rinse and repeat for 14 week

Prof. Hasti is a nice guy and is always willing to help. His classes are mainly note-taking while he walks through all the key points in detail. However, the expectations are pretty high if you would like to get an 'A'. So, the homeworks and quizzes are something you want to get 100% if possible because the exams aren't the easiest.

Professor Hasti makes the class super easy to follow and gives very good lectures. He doesn't expect you to have any prior programming knowledge coming into this class and makes sure to have a pace that everyone can follow. Overall a great professor.

Fun class, but Professor Hasti makes it accessable. Helps to have computer programming experience prior to the class, but he teaches it in a way where it is by no means mandatory. Very fair professor who wants to help his students succeed.

Beck is a really good professor and he is always available and willing to help. CS310 only had one power lecture a week, so he crammed a lot of material into little time. Would definitely take another one of his classes if I need a CS course. Homework is often difficult and takes a long time (only once every two weeks), but use office hours!

Very boring lecturer, proofs section is lengthy, discussions are pointless. Study class notes for exams and prepare for the proofs.

For someone who knew nothing about any sort of programming, Beck made the class very understandable. Does a great job with going over examples and answering questions in lecture and lab. Sometimes the exams and homework were difficult, but it was definitely worth it overall.

Beck is an excellent professor. He is clear in his explanations and answers questions well. The grading wasn't very fast, but that may be a result of TA's and the fact that much of the class is proof-based. Overall, he is an excellent professor to teach introductory discrete math.

Very good teacher. He really wants you to understand. He goes through all the problems step-by-step. It can get a bit tedious but it does wonders in helping you learn. Would highly recommend this professor for Discrete Math.

He knew what he was talking about and the class was very interesting. The projects were hard but very cool to do. My favorite Comp Sci class I've taken so far.

His lectures are based off of note sheets that he hands out in class, which is nice for some topics, but not helpful for others. All my learning occurred in team labs and not in lectures.

Great professor who understands his students better than 99% of professors on UW's campus.

Beck was a really nice professor, and he made the ideas in the class very clear. If you needed help he would always help you, but he wasn't very accessible by email. His lectures were good to go to if you were struggling with the concepts but really you could learn everything you needed to by doing the hw, team labs and modules. Would recommend!

He was really cool until he made a homework and assignment due the day before the final, was not impressed with the poor scheduling

Beck is a very good lecturer. He explains things concisely and works through interesting example problems in class. He makes his expectations (i.e. how much detail one needs to give in the proofs) very clear. Furthermore he really cares about helping students learn, and is a very nice guy.

Beck cares but his lectures are dry and sometimes spends an entire lecture doing the exact same problem as a previous lecture again. Some proofs take the entire lecture, and can be confusing and arbitrary. Follow practice problems closely for exams and look over lecture notes.

excellent professor, tries to make a tough subject accessible to those that aren't math-inclined

The discussions are next to useless unless you get a decent TA. The structure of discussion is supposed to be group working through practice problems, but I had a TA whose sloppily written logical symbols and letters look more like Arabic than English (neither of which he spoke well). I have not been to discussion sin

I had a great experience with Prof. Hasti for CS240 (Discrete Math)! Math is not my strongest subject, but he was a great professor and that helped get me through the class. The first 2/3 of the class is very proof-heavy, but I really enjoyed the last 1/3 of the class. Homework is tricky, so it helps to have a partner. Tests and grading are fair.

Very helpful

Amazing professor

Lecture is about sophisticated proof of tough questions. Think very hard & take much time to understand him & lect notes which seems helpless when u do assignments. Not many practice. No exam review. TA is like a stone &has no idea what to do during discussions.

Very helpful at office hours, may not be very clear in lecture but that's totally fine. Get early to his office hour and you will learn all the stuff needed. Recommended for CS240

Beck makes an effort to meet with students, even during advising hours and beyond. If you have a question he'll answer it. All around humorous but he can get a bit spacey at times. Good teacher overall, cares about what he's doing.

Clear in what he expects you to know. Very approachable person.

Great intro to compsci course! Beck does an excellent job at working through problems in an easy to follow way so that anyone can understand. Homeworks can take a while and the exams are somewhat challenging but very fair. Overall, great way to start in computer science!

Great, helpful prof. Online notes/manual are extremely helpful and allow students to teach themselves. Labs allow students to work together, and I think they're a great opportunity. Overall, this class and prof were great and I learned a lot about Matlab and Maple, which will help me for years to come.

Beck is a very nice professor! His class is well organized, and the contents are explained clearly. If u just work on the stuff, u will just find CS310 is a very easy course. The exams & HWs are easy. He still has some "challenging" extra credits! (Although I do not think they are challenging, u can get a lot of hints from him) Great course to take

Beck is a super nice guy, and is genuinely concerned about your performance in his class. He is so helpful during office hours and is easy to get a hold of via email. The material in this class is hard, but the online modules and labs really help. The only downside to Beck is that he takes FOREVER to grade homework and tests.

Beck isn't a professor, he just teaches, and it shows. He's very good at taking data structures concepts, which are new to most people when they take the course, and making them understandable. As somebody who knew about this before I found the class boring, so he must have been doing a good job going down to first principles to explain!

Professor goes out of the way to ensure students understand the material and does it in an understanding level of the students. Throws in trick questions in the exam but everything is do-able and students can also self-teach themselves using the informative modules constructed by the professor.

Super nice professor, willing to help. Easy class.

Excellent instructor. Beck knows how to take abstract information and present in a manner in which you can understand, which is a rarity in CS. This content of this course is invaluable if you're a CS major, and Beck was indispensable in my getting an A.

Beck is a great guy, and he taught 367 really well to me. I have heard it's difficult for some ECE majors, but if you understood 302 well, Beck is your man for 367. He's clear, has helpful note handouts for every lecture, and often has useful demos which really help you learn the data structures. He is the reason I started loving to program.

Hasti is one of the best professors in the CS department in Madison. He explain everything clearly and you can tell that he really love teaching. From the material he talked about in class, it is obvious that he did a lot of preparation and really know how to teach. Really recommend this instructor!!

Hasti does an excellent job of explaining the material. My only complaint is that the course was extremely slow; seemed like we wasted the first month. The 5 programs were quite do-able.

Always clear and helpful, CS 367 is great class and well taught. The online readings are clear, and the assignments aren't too hard if you pay attention in class or even just read the material carefully. Beck is also an adviser, and very helpful if you want a CS degree.

Great teach, clear and helpful. First two exams were super easy, but ran out of time during final. Programming assignments are time consuming and often boring, but overall just a swell experience with good ole beck

A very helpful and clear professor. This is required to apply for the CS major and it turned out to be my favorite class. Exams and programs are very fair as long as you understand the material. Some HW's had a problem that stumped me, but these won't take up too much of your time. Overall you learn a lot in this class, and Hasti is very helpful.

Hasti is a great professor for 367. She makes things easy to understand and her exams are pretty straightforward (she tells you exactly what to study for and gives you sample questions). She keeps lectures interesting and encourages the class to discuss and ask questions. I would definitely recommend taking her for 367 if at all possible.

Excellent professor. Although I only went to lecture maybe four times her homeworks were well formed and were interesting and challenging. I wouldn't say anything was hard about the class especially the exams. Overall great class and great teacher.

I had her for 367 this semester. She is an excellent teacher, presents lectures well, and responds to all questions. However, she assigned a lot of homework and programming assignments. The homework wasn't bad, but the programs were hard, with very strict grading. The two midterms were of medium difficulty, although my class avg. was very high.

Helpful and clear. However grading slightly unfair. Exams are really hard. I got A's on all the programs and homeworks and ended up with a BC. Pretty frustrating.

One of the best teachers that I've had. Wish she taught all the CS classes. Is very clear in class and willing to answer any question asked during lecture. Homework and programs can be hard but if you go to her office hours she will help as much as she can. If you pay attention and do the hw and programs, tests wont be too hard.

Hasti was a great professor for 367. The programs and assignments were easy enough and her lectures were definitely worth going to. Online notes were good if you skipped out too.

Wouldn't recommend for CS412, she just regurgitates the book. Takes forever to receive homework back/solutions. Crammed way too much material in, most of it felt like we were just plugging numbers into algorithms...

Excellent professor. Her lecture's were very well organized and she did an excellent job making sure she was clear. (good diagrams) Homework and programming assignments were easy but made sure you were on top of the material - exams were easy. (Granted I already knew alot about the data structures before i took the class). Highly recommend her.

Great lecturer who knows more about programming and java than I ever will. Projects weren't bad as long as you really understood how the data structures you were using worked. Exams were semi-tough but doable. Overall a good person to learn comp sci from.

She teaches the material, but doesn't exactly do a very good job of it. Her tests are pretty damn hard, and there aren't enough TAs for help if you get stuck during one of the projects. Honestly, I'd go with one of the smaller lectures if possible. Hasti just has too many students with too few TAs.