Current instructor

Gary Dahl

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.17/5 from 156 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

COMPSCI/ECE 354
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
Gary is very systematic in his teaching. It is clear what you're graded on and what you are expected to know. The content is structured well. Frequent in-person quizzes added a lot of pressure to the class but they definitely motivated me to understand every little detail in the projects because anything might come up in a quiz.
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COMPSCI/ECE 354
Quality 1/5Difficulty 3/5
Course materials are dense Emacs notes that are hard to read/annotate. Lec lacks visual structure, and vague explanations with frequent fillers make new topics difficult to follow. It often feels like review for prepared students rather than teaching beginners in low level coding, especially with the fast pace and biweekly quizzes.
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COMPSCI/ECE 354
Quality 4/5Difficulty 3/5
I learned a lot from Gary and felt that the projects really helped me learn the class well. The lectures felt confusing at times but felt that I was able to freely ask him questions.
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COMPSCI/ECE 354
Quality 1/5Difficulty 3/5
Gary is a monotone professor. He simply reads off the slides. He does not seem at all passionate about the topic.
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COMPSCI/ECE 354
Quality 1/5Difficulty 3/5
Professor Dahl seems like a nice guy but is incredibly boring. They are structured in a way that is hard to follow and will make you fall asleep. Overall, the class isn't too hard but it has been my least favorite CS course I have taken so far.
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COMPSCI/ECE 354
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Gary stalks this page and reporting every negative comment to put it down. Btw all the positive comments are written by himself. He complained about it on the lecture, that there are so many negative comments that he had to write a couple of positive ones. This guy is hilarious.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Gary Dahl

Machine Organization and Programming introduces computer system structures and C programming, focusing on low-level performance impacts like virtual memory, caching, and assembly.

Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources

Past student reviews · Gary Dahl

Gary Dahl’s lectures were called unorganized, monotone, and confusing by some, while another found his teaching systematic and grading expectations clear. Project descriptions were poorly written, bi-weekly quizzes were an extra burden, though they also motivated detailed preparation. He was also described as strict about policy, and one student said success required extra effort.

historical GPA · grades

Fall 2022–Spring 2026

Recorded teaching history

Distinct courses recorded per term

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Spring 2027COMPSCI/ECE 354Machine Organization and Programming
Fall 2026COMPSCI/ECE 354Machine Organization and Programming

Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance
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