Notes

Honestly speaking, Rajiv is one of the best teachers I've ever learned from. Everything from his philosophy of teaching (work for the learning, not for the grade) to his teaching style (lots of cold-calling and participation from students to ensure attentiveness) lines up completely with what I envisioned a perfect professor to be. I was definitely a bit taken aback by his teaching style at first because he was the first professor that I had a lecture from and his cold-calling style surprised me on my very first day at Penn. However, as I got to know him, I would say that Rajiv is a great professor with a great passion for teaching. He makes the lectures extremely educational and interesting; I learned some topics that I would have never expected to enjoy learning about, such as graph theory and set theory. The way he presents the material makes everyone involved in the learning feel very fulfilled once things are understood. While the topics learned in the course are very unfamiliar for most of the people learning it, Rajiv simplifies the content to its most basic form and makes sure that everyone in the lecture understands the content. While doing that, he really solidifies everyone's understanding because sometimes he purposely writes incorrect things on the page and asks the students if they agree, to truly check understanding; not only does the student need to understand what's on the page (and has the opportunity to ask if not, which is also very important), but also needs to defend their answer with solid reasoning, which only comes with a deep understanding of the material, which is what Rajiv wants each of the students to have.

Undoubtedly, the course is extremely difficult (as its reputation suggests). Regardless, I do not at all regret taking this course. For one, I learned how to think better. I don't mean this at all lightly. The thought processes required in CIS 160 require a lot of critical thinking and knowing how to break down each problem into manageable components that we can apply the course concepts is just 1 part of the fun of the course. While the struggle is not fun while we are going through the experience, in hindsight I would say that this is one of the best courses I have taken. The TA's, just like the professor, are also extremely passionate about teaching the course content and keen to help the students learn (there is genuine interest and passion in their teaching because they try their best to make the recitations also educational and separate from the lectures in their own unique way). Overall, I would recommend this course to everyone, especially if taking it with Rajiv. He makes it pretty easy to pass even if you aren't the best at the topic (> 40% on the homework, and at least an exam average of 1 standard deviation below the mean). Given the large amount of shared struggle that students in the course experience, I can say it is worth experiencing at least once, plus everyone who takes it comes out a better thinker.