After your class, student hate algorithms. Why teach?

Maybe the worst lecturer in CS at Madison. Slides filled with way too much jargon and HW is impossible. Generally condescending as well and obviously does not care to teach the material or care about student's success.

Very poorly designed and explained lectures. Extremely tough grading and will not reconsider regardless of the situation. Overall bad professor

I have a bone to pick with Marc. He barely knows how to teach and the only time I saw him smile was when someone raised their hand and got an answer wrong. His homework answers were so bad I think he would have failed himself. He thinks he's wayy smarter than he really is, he couldn't answer a question I asked that my TA answered easily. Dastardly.

Youtube videos with < 1,000 views explained the topics better than him. Worst professor I have had at UW-Madison

straight up terrible person does NOT care about students take algos with LITERALLY anyone else

most boring and useless lectures known to man, so bad i stopped going even though there's tophat for credit. also pay to win class lmao, take the honors section with dieter

He doesn't explain algorithms clearly, and his teaching style kills confidence. Really leaves students demotivated and lost. His replies to students' questions just dont seem like "he really wants to help you",instead he gives you a feeling that" oh, it's NOT my fault you don't understand the materials" with his terrible explanation and disrespect

Not a great teacher. I'm sure he's a very smart guy, but he should not be teaching a class. He likes to pretend to hold the moral high ground, while not helping students do well in the class. The lectures are poorly dictated with challenging to understand slides. Tons of busywork required to get a good grade.

A very mean person and very poor explainer.

He's lecture is just reading PPT, and you need to spend a lot of time to get extra points.

The department should not allow professors to enjoy humilating students.

The lectures are overly complex, and the professor doesn't provide much feedback. However, the textbook and resources are helpful if you're proactive. For study prep, tools like unstuck ai and ChatGPT can be useful.

577 is requried for graduation. First day of class, this instructor told students on the waitlist not to approach him. This instructor's approach is the direct opposite. There are many excellent professors at this school, including Dieter van Melkebeek, Manolis Vlatakis, and Sandeep Silwal, all of whom are highly recommended, but not him.

Bro just be telling his joke and don't care about his student at all. Where else do you ever see you can pay for a zybook for extra credit? Avoid at all cost.

Disrespectful person. The CS department really need to regulate the attitudes instructors bring to students. He always tried to be nice in class, but when he's facing you individually, like on Piazza or in emails? He's mean af! His answers are always within 5 words, no matter how complicated your situation is.

Education videos on Youtube always have comments with things like "my prof talked for hours and it made no sense but this 5 min video did". RENAULT IS THAT PROF. Someone posted on Piazza about how they were terrified for the final (WORTH HALF YOUR GRADE) and Renault left a link to UHS, while ANOTHER PROF stepped in responded with a caring comment.

If Marc's terse unorganized lectures are anything to go on, he genuinely hates teaching. He was surprisingly rude so to students during lecture and refused to answer questions and even openly expressed disdain for students who asked questions that were not up to his expectations.

Accusses students of cheating if you ask for a regrade. Good luck

Seems to despise students who are below the top of his class. Refuses to provide any feedback on quizzes and exams.

Horrible lecturer; often uses exquisite terms and goes on tangents during lecture. Seems unwilling to answer students' questions (once told a student to "ask your mom" as a "joke"). The final exam is worth half your grade, and is being gatekept from students (posted rickroll as the exam pdf, then admits he finds it funny). Avoid him if possible.

I found my experience to be very negative. Prof occasionally went on tangents and there is a lot of work such as participation and quizzes which are required but do not count for much. Made the exam overly difficult with a ridiculous curve system. Extra credit can only be earned by paying for online textbooks that cannot be accessed anywhere else.

The lecture and the class were alright in general, however as a professor can be very rude and careless when it comes to giving assistance to students. Appears to have a disdain working with students.

He's lecture is just reading PPT, and you need to pay to get bonus credit. Worse professor I have ever encounter. Took his class because he is the only choice in summer. Avoid him if you could.

The most apathetic professor I have ever encountered. Never gave feedback for the final, and condensed the class unnecessarily. Piazza posts were never answered about when we'd get our grades back, etc. Lectures were extremely rushed, and I honestly believe he didn't care whether or not we learned the content well. Avoid him at all costs.

Feedback was minimal on quizzes. Reached out for additional feedback to improve for the final but emails were ignored. Lectures are overly complex. Concepts poorly introduced.

there's just so much content & all of it condensed from a 16w sem to an 8w summer session. said he expects us to put 32 hrs/w into the course. lectures are okay but he reads through slides rather than explaining the logic behind why what happens, which is what hw, quizzes, and exams test. not the best prof but the only one available. VERY rough :(

Simply not a good lecturer or teacher. Was very disappointed, because this is an important class that I was excited for, now I am just jumping through hoops to not fail. If Renault was asked to explain what an airplane was to someone who didn't know what it was, he would begin by explaining the equation for lift.

Overall I had a great semester with Marc. The lecture slides contain pretty much all the information you need to succeed, but Marc can and will elaborate on them. Try to solve all the homework problems yourself before looking solutions up, and try some problems from the book. The class was hard, but Marc provided the resources necessary to succeed.

Not a great lecturer but makes time for questions throughout class. He provides a lot of resources and the textbooks have good practice problems, but you won't get much feedback in the class unless you ask for it. The content is hard but if you're proactive you'll be fine.

Horribly structured course. Marc fails to explain many topics well, choosing instead to throw up complex math formulas and terminology that nobody understands. Go to study group if you want to actually learn the material. He is kinda funny though.

Marc is apathy personified in a CS professor. Little to no regard for his students' wellbeing & actively trying to pit students against each other, saying "his class is like The Hunger Games." Overcomplicated lectures & overly technical definitions for students learning the material for the first time. Did not contribute to my learning whatsoever.

Just runs through slides hoping that you can keep up, learned most of the content outside of lecture in OH or online. Very vague on large topics, lecture slides are very variable heavy, using more greek and algebraic notation than regular sentences.

The biggest issue is him counting bonus points as part of curve. Other stuff lecture = read of slides + random story about how x scientist made algorithim during their coffee break + i'm canadian, gives pointless examples throughout the semester without giving you the necessary tools to approach the algorithm/proof problems and actually solve them.

This professor is one of the worst I have ever had the displeasure of learning from. He often lets his ego get in the way of teaching and is a stickler for attendance. I have shown up 3min late to a 75min lecture and still was rejected an attendance credit which is graded. I'm sure his teaching style is good for someone, but I can't imagine who.

He doesn't teach at all he just reads off slides and half the time I question whether even he knows what he talks about. He explains everything like you should know it already and uses no useful diagrams. Just shows a block of undecipherable code and expects us to understand it. Genuinely the worst prof ever

Professor Renault was good at teaching concepts in a famously difficult class in a somewhat muddled, but detailed way during the semester. Provided lots of examples and gave ample time to study concepts before small quizzes throughout the semester. Though I would recommend voting for the Midterm + Final for less stress overall.

Marc is genuinely the worst professor at UW. His method of teaching consists of reading off slides in which he overcomplicates most topics. It also doesn't help that he draws directly off his device on the slides because the writing is barely legible. He is a bit condescending and even said once "You should be scared of me I can change your grade"

His teaching style is mainly comprised of reading off the slides, without properly explaining them which personally wasn't an effective teaching method for me. Exams were ok at best. I wasn't a fan of the timed quizzes.

He's just mean. Doesn't actually want to help the students because his ego is in the way.

This man is a fine enough person, but absolutely horrible at lecturing! Complex concepts are obfuscated by a magical click of "next slide" instead of being properly explained.

I'm sure Marc would be a fine professor in an easier class, but he didn't explain the topics in this high-level Algorithms course very well, leaving us to just pray when it comes to the final exam which is worth 45% of the final grade. Fine course, rough teaching, awful structure.

one of the terrible ones you will meet. Gives same workload for summer sessions. Prove yourself on the 45% exam. Never accept accommodations which was frantic. Also made mistake with wrong due date and he didn't admit his mistake.

Not a bad lecturer, but his class is easily one of the worst-structured ones I've ever taken. Lectures don't help with homework. Study groups are very limited. Essentially requires you to spend $100 on zybooks or significantly fall behind the class on grading. Also super unhelpful on piazza and just says to read the syllabus

Nothing is related Marc with a good lecturer. It is true that Marc is around average and you cannot say he is bad. But don't expect you can learn anything valuable from him. His grading cretiria makes you looks okay. But he won't provide you with a high quality teaching as Dieter or CAI will. So. for me, Marc is absolutely bad. NOT WORTH TO TAKE

The lecture is like a wikipedia page with a lot of complicated math formulas. The only way for me is to watch youtube and learn by myself. I know the algo is difficult but I hope that the department can have a better lecturer to help students understand the content. Overall, I want to say the lecture IS NOT HELPFUL FOR ME to understand algo.

CS577 is structured poorly but Renault is not a bad teacher. People hating on him honestly I think just hate the structure of the class. 45% final lowkey feels like a coinflip for each question based on whether or not you know the question. Pretty much ZERO feedback recieved from the TAs and Prof until the exam. Good Luck.

Marc was a good guy and decent lecturer put in a tough position with the accelerated summer course. However, I think the problems with this class are in the 45% final, along with only knowing if you got a question right on the severely easy quizzes. The class itself needs restructuring, but Marc taught it well enough.

Marc is a nice guy with an odd sense of Canadian dad humor. However, his teaching style leaves you uncertain about your answers, since the class is mostly "hand waving" away algos. Moreover, when confronted with his own mistake on Canvas, he stubbornly refused to rectify the due date, even though he had posted the incorrect date just one day prior.

A difficult class but Marc is a good professor. His expectations are clear, he explains topics well, and the course is very well-structured. Most of the semester is graded off participation, which makes for a less stressful semester but a very stressful final. The final seems to vary a good bit in difficulty every semester, but is curved.

Honestly give 4 to Marc been a nice person and this semester's final was easy. This is really a hard class. Marc's lecture makes sense but it doesn't help with understanding the content and exam. You'd better practice on your own and try to pull a 30+ on the final. He's trying his best but it is just a hard class. I feel I did not learn much though

Marc is the most uncaring, arrogant, irresponsible professor I've ever had. He never replies to emails. His replies on pizza are always rude and never actually answers the questions. His lectures are unhelpful. He basically gaslights the class into taking one final worth 45% of our grade. I feel like I learned nothing from this class.

Marc is incredibly smart, class is very hard. He's always available for questions after class and never denies questions during lecture. The content of the course is hard and sometimes he finds it a bit surprising that students may not know things that he thinks they should know. He's a funny nerd and always smiling. recommend for sure

This is the worst professor I have ever had. Lectures are the most boring, monotone, wikipedia-level readings with no efficient way of conveying any concepts. Homeworks and discussions cannot prepare you for the torturous final exam that he gaslights the class into choosing(10 bonus points means nothing in a curved class).

just read off lecture slides, didn't really teach any course material. its an important class but I didn't feel like i learned anything from it. the final was hard, and he could've done a better job at explaining concepts.

10/10 came to class with COVID attendance required and graded

Marc might be funny but his lectures were not good. Final is 45% of your grade and the hardest exam I've ever taken in my entire life. The biggest issue is it's a hard class and Marc isn't a fantastic lecturer. Use Abdul Bari on YouTube to make your life easier!

He's clearly pretty knowledgable and is a useful resource. Some of the TAs are questionable, as always, but if you put effort in, you can succeed in this class. Main negative is the final is 50% and a huge time crunch. I feel like I know the material very well but did poorly because of the format and prep he gave us.

Useless lectures. Learned everything on the PowerPoint, but the final exam taking up 45% of your grade is 10 times harder than what you learn. The median and mean were 17/50 so you know how terrible he teaches and how hard the exam is. On top of that, he curved really harshly and I think ~15% gets an A.

Algos with Marc is not bad. HW's are participation, lectures not required (only discussion), Quizzes are graded really easy, final is hard and 45% of your grade, but the curve is great (got a 53% which was a B). Idk about getting an A or AB, but getting a B with Marc is really not that bad (I didn't learn anything until 2 weeks before the final)

Incompetent and arrogant.

Lectures were pretty good, though he just reads directly from slides. Homeworks graded by participation and quizzes were graded on a generous scale. Tough class but Marc is a good professor to have for it.

Avoid at all cost. Couldn't explain difficult concepts clearly. Takes off participation points if you don't show up in lectures, which don't really help you learn. Read the textbook and figure out the concepts on your own.

Marc seems like a nice person to interact with, however his lectures are extremely rushed with little to no break points. Watching recorded lectures seem better simply because you can pause and rewind. It's pretty hard to feel like you're learning correctly because units move along so quickly. Definitely should separated into two classes.

Marc is humorous and probably nice, but he is not good at explaining complicated algorithms or proofs to students. Lectures are hard to follow. Once distracted, it would be hard to understand what he is saying. The final exam is weighted 45% and I heard it will be super hard.

This was a beneficial class, I learned plenty from Marc. Marc is helpful and accommodating to students by uploading lectures online. The syllabus can be quite intimidating (45%-50% final) but it is graded very generously. Make sure to get all the participation points and don't miss quizzes! 4 instead of a 5 because grading is slow at times.

Tough exams and vague lectures

:) no words after taking the "OPEN BOOK" final

Honestly this is probably the toughest CS course I've had so far at UW. Marc's lectures are fun, but I wish he'd give more examples. When he introduces a new topic, we get a VERY basic example, and the homework questions are TOUGH. The easy quizzes IMO don't prepare you well for the final, which was 45% of our final grade. Good prof, but good luck.

The exams are easier than homework. Although attendance is not required during the lecture, I would like to attend his lecture because he's very humorous. He may correct some mistakes in his PPT (a few), so you'd better pay attention to them.

Professor Renault was an okay lecturer for CS240. His quality of instruction was average. During the explosion of Omicron cases on campus, Professor Renault was unresponsive and refused to give any online option for the exam scheduled for dec23. Students were penalized when staying home sick and he showed a disregard for the health of his class.

Started the semester with Bach, but was luckily able to switch into Marc's section after a few lectures. Marc's lecture was significantly more organized and easier to understand. The class is definitely difficult, but Marc has been one of the better professors I have had in the CS department in my opinion.

Unfortunately, algorithms was the most frigging difficult course and Marc was not the best lecturer for this (so as his TAs). However, I am giving 4 / 5 because the other option was Eric Bach and you should definitely choose Marc over Bach...

He is a terrible lecturer. Lectures are simply useless. Even TAs suggest doing additional readings instead of watching lectures or zybooks. Exams and Hw are too difficult compared to the material presented in lectures.

Professor wouldn't let me make up a quiz when I had covid - it was the first quiz of the year and the average was like an 80. Not taking it dropped my final letter grade from a B to a BC. Very unaccommodating, did not care about the students whatsoever. Would stand in lecture silent for 5 minutes because he didn't understand what was on his slides

Does not give you very many practice problems, and the ones he does give, he explains horribly. Does not show the answers to the practice problems from the online textbook, and you get tested on sections that he flagged as optional simply because he showed you one example in lecture. Expects you to understand what he says because he understands it.

Bad class. Just not good. didn't learn anything. Don't take it

Everything about his classes are great. Be ready for a lot of cheap tricks in the exams to make you lose unnecessary points.

Marc brings a great sense of humor to a class that has traditionally been intimidating. The algorithms in the course were difficult and involved lots of work, but you got the majority of points for submitting something that was heading in the right direction, and TAs helped students on one homework problem each week.

The Dark Souls of Computer Science at UW. Prepare to Delight in the gentle guidance, light-hearted humor, and wheeze-laughs of Prof. Marc Renault, then despair for dozens of hours each week to properly complete homework. Pick your deity of choice and hope for divine inspiration - youll need it. Read the book and attend study sessions - saves time!

I had him for CS577. Marc and Christos were the 2 profs. I watched both their lectures and liked Christos' better and often got confused during Marc's (personal preference). However, Marc is a really nice guy with a sense of humor and my semester had one of the most generous curves I've ever seen (50% of class got A).

He is a really nice person, very reachable and kind, personally, I would take this course again just because of him. However, the class itself is hard, maybe I am not an algorithm person but everything seems difficult to understand, especially when the lecture come to randomization. Extra time needed outside class!

If you've programmed before, the first half of the class will be manageable. Then, it gets harder once data structures and objects/classes get introduced. Lectures would help a lot for tests and understanding, but not necessarily essential. Make sure you study the weekly labs and start the weekly programming assignment early incase you get stuck.

He is really a good guy.

Handles students' problems well and is extremely accessible outside of class. Class ran very smoothly online.

Honestly Marc was an amazing professor. He really seemed to care about his students and wanted to make his lectures engaging. It was really beneficial to attend his virtual lectures plus the ones on canvas. One thing to be aware of about the class is it very programming project based and the TA's get overwhelmed easily. So start the programs early.

Great Professor. But the class itself is designed poorly. Contents require much more than one lecture per week to cover, but the course still demands your understanding. Have to figure out most things on your own. Projects take up really long time (more like a 4-credit course, not 1) Marc is experienced and accessible through Piazza though.

Great professor, delivers clear and funny lectures.

This guy is pretty rad. I had him last semester for CS200. I had zero programming knowledge before taking this class and I didn't do so well at first. I went up to his office hours to go over my exam with him and he really helped me get the gist of the material. If I have the chance to take another Renault class I will. He deserves the hype.

I took this class last semester and I already miss Professor Marc. Hands down one of the best teachers I've ever seen. This class is really fun partly due to his great teaching and partly due to his great sense of humor. Professor Marc, if you read this, just know that we miss you a lot and wish you great health :)

Marc is a very funny dude who seemingly cares about his students. He graded one code refactoring project brutally, but other than that grading was reasonable. He explains concepts clearly, and throws in a joke here and there.

Go to at least 80% of lectures/team labs. He makes concepts easy to learn to students new to CS. He makes a lot of silly jokes and references to Star Wars. As of fall 2019, there is no final project. If you do well on the final, the midterms don't matter. You need to get TopHat (lecture participation) and zyBooks (book + hw labs) for this class.

This class is difficult... It's meant to weed out students who want to major in CS but aren't ready for it. That being said, if you're going to take the class, Marc is the way to go. Although there's more material to learn than can be covered in lecture, Marc lays it out clearly and provides you with all the tools you need to succeed.

One of my favorite professors of all time. I came into the class not knowing a thing about code and now I know the basics of java and have a strong passion to learn more. You can tell he loves his profession and it shines through his lectures every day. He is very caring and makes every class more interesting than the last. Thanks Marc! Go LEAFS!!!

Funny, smart, and caring - Mark is the go-to for CS 200 - class is enjoyable and lectures really aren't terrible, just lots of work. If you simply go to class Marc will often show the exact samples of tricks on the midterm through top hats or word of mouth.

Absolutely fantastic professor and person overall.

He brings candy, and is a very fun professor. He makes a lot of jokes, and does a lot to make CS fun. If you happen to speak french, you can also talk to him in that language.

One of the best. He made a fairly difficult intro class easier and enjoyable. Majority of the grade is based on 2 big projects and exams. Get started on the big projects early and you'll be fine. Exams are fair. Read every question carefully and go back through if you have time. Questions are similar to TopHat questions and labs.

Renault does a great job with this course, making the subject very engaging. Assignments can be very long and tedious though. Do not expect to blow this class off! Exams are designed such that every question is a puzzle: take your time before choosing an answer. If you do well on the Big Programs and are careful on exams this course SHOULD be easy!

Marc was a great professor and you could tell he really wants everyone to succeed! He was thorough in lecture and always willing to answer questions. Overall, the class wasn't that hard until the big programs came about, and even then you have opportunities for extra credit if you turn them in early.