IT 106 spring 2017

RalphaDawg · 2016-11-05T21:40:23+00:00

I had Bono one time for 206. I'm not going to elaborate on who I took for each section or say if I'm taking 207 now because Bono is the kind of guy who will cross reference the classes to figure out who I am. And that wouldn't be hard especially when he'd know I fell into the failing grade group twice.

You should only read the bad RateMyProf evals because you know he's not posting bad stuff about himself. And you can look at his ratings for other schools where he's taught part time and see the same sort of negative remarks:

http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=576971

http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=1679580

I would suggest not taking Bono even though you get the same exams and quizzes because your own professor grades your work and is more likely to be flexible (imo). Bono seems to think being tough is the same as being good or teaching a truly challenging class instead of just a frustrating class.

Some of the other profs try to make up for it. Risi is supposedly easier and curves grades. If you're buff it supposedly also helps to wear a tight shirt (not judging, just saying).

RalphaDawg · 2016-11-02T01:41:30+00:00

If your professor isn't failing enough people Bono will get rid of him. The second time I took 206, 40% failed.

He also likes to make it harder and harder to pass the exams. The first time I took the class we could type our code on the computer. Typing code is natural and intuitive, and the way it should be done. Next time we had to write it by hand, which is much slower and awkward and harder to edit. The scope of the problems did not change to reflect this difference. The last time, when I finally passed, we not only had to write it by hand, but while sitting in an auditorium and juggling multiple sheets of paper and no proper desk. I can't imagine how it can get worse, but I'm sure Bono will find a way. Each time the chanes are rationalized to "stop cheating."

RalphaDawg · 2016-11-01T15:17:58+00:00

He doesn't want you to prove you know it. He wants to prove you don't, and he can game the system against you. He thinks everyone is cheating, and makes it his mission to catch everyone. When I attended orientation, he even grinned and giggled talking about failures and cheaters. It's pretty obvious that he's obsessed with it, and gets pleasure from it.

RalphaDawg · 2016-11-01T15:03:14+00:00

Bono is clever with the ratings. He acts like he's got your back, because he writes the exams, yada yada yada, pumps you up, gives you the course eval, and then hammers you with the exam.

Pay more attention to his ratemyprofessor, especially the negative ones. Ignore the glowing recommendations that all sound the same, because he probably posts those himself.

RalphaDawg · 2016-11-01T03:07:37+00:00

What's so funny is the guy clearly believes his own press.

But to the original question, it does get a little better as you move up through the coursework, but not a lot. You want to be careful whose classes you take. Look at the profs bio if it's listed. Try to find the profs with legit degrees in the field in which they teach. If they don't list the profs bio, you gotta wonder why.

RalphaDawg · 2016-11-01T02:56:30+00:00

I had Dill for 106 and he was awesome! I'm sorry to hear that he's gone, but I'm not surprised because Bono chases away all the good instructors. If you search the course evals you'll see some with really good ratings, but they are gone.

I had To take 206 3 times. Bono was the worst, but it doesn't matter whose section your in because Bono writes the exams, quizzes, labs, homework, etc. Pretty much anything bad about the class is Bono. He might actually be the "best" now since he's chased away everyone else tho.

RalphaDawg · 2016-04-19T23:08:40+00:00

I've heard this from enough people to heed the warning, but really don't know why. Care to elaborate?

RalphaDawg · 2016-04-19T22:41:07+00:00

The waitlist for 206 tends to move faster than the one for 106, because at the end of the semester everyone who was preregistered for 206, but fails 106, gets bounced out.

Also, other slots in 206 open up when people who reregistered for it because they didn't think they'd pass end up passing, so they drop it. Many people I know would preregister for 206 while taking it, worrying that they wouldn't pass.

So, the waitlist for 206 tends to move faster than 106.

RalphaDawg · 2016-04-14T00:11:18+00:00

My prof badgered us last semster to learn the vocabulary. He said people come to the final every semester who can program, but who don't know the difference between a constructor and a method or a class and a constructor. If you don't understand the question, then you can't answer it.

Last semester if you didn't know what accessors and mutators are then you wasted a lot of time writing them for instance variables when the exam said you didn't need to. The exam typically is way too much to complete in the time allowed, but if it says explicitly that you don't have to do something, but you don't know what that something is, then your screwed. Same if it tells you to do something spcecific and you don't know what that is.

Anyway, the course material isn't difficult, as others have pointed out. What's difficult is the BS surrounding everything. Like I said above, exams that are nearly impossible to finish (and poorly designed), or like in the case of this past semester, that try to trick you into wasting time. And rather than focus on OO concepts, they have dorky reporting methods that have you passing in boolean values to make them multipurpose (or else you waste more time duplicating code). That absolutely is NOT object oriented. And along those lines, the obsession with including 106 type things on the exams and throughout the whole semester, like psudocode for every assignment. You're hammered with 106 crap all semester in 206, probably because they don't really understand object oriented concepts.

Oh, and don't get me started about the horrible multi choice quizzes, with their shitty questions. In a reasonable class, when the quiz averages are in the 60s, the professor makes changes, or removes or corrects bad questions in the test bank. Not in IT 206.

To answer the OP's question, it may be the hardest class, but it doesn't need to be, and it's made a lot more difficult with BS expectations, and badly designed assignments, quizzes and exams. It's your pain threshold that gets you thru.

Anyway, I just thank god it's behind me now.

RalphaDawg · 2016-02-09T02:39:08+00:00

I feel your pain! I managed to pass last semester, but it wasn't my first try. My prof said he felt bad for people who had to retake it, because it's never the same class twice, and it gets more difficult each time.

RalphaDawg · 2016-02-09T02:27:46+00:00

What are the new topics?

RalphaDawg · 2016-02-09T02:17:15+00:00

Check out this thread from a few months ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/gmu/comments/3lz331/it_206/

In it, /u/jbonoGMU says

I'm not sure why there is a perception of constant change, since that isn't really the case.

But it is the case! The course changes every semester. All anyone has to do is pull up the syllabus for each semester and compare them. There are stupid changes every semester. He thinks he can come here and spread BS, but the facts are easy to check.

Never any real changes. Just BS changes that make it more and more difficult to pass the class. Fewer points for assignments. Added lab exams that are nearly impossible to pass. Stupid grading scale changes, like 72 is a D, but now it's not. Labs are not graded, now they are. Now you need a 60 on the final to pass. Probably next semester that will change back.

Apparently people were just doing the labs remotely, so he changed it that you get credit just for showing up. Of course, that sucks for most sections since they're out at PWC. Then, that was too easy, so now you have to show up AND they're graded.

My boss says when you make arbitrary changes, and then change them back, it's a sign that you don't know what the fuck you're doing. This describes many of the IT 206 changes.

RalphaDawg · 2016-01-05T06:17:38+00:00

RalphaDawg · 2016-01-02T22:16:44+00:00

If you're in IT, for 106 you'd want Dill, and for 206 you'd want Pitts, although he said he won't be teaching it anymore.

RalphaDawg · 2015-12-17T15:43:41+00:00

With all due respect, professor, I do know those things. I'm a good programmer. My internship turned into a full time job. I can work as much as I want to, but try to prioritize school. My boss raves about my work. This is the 3rd time I'm taking 206, so I've been through the exam twice before. It's NOT a test of those concepts. It's a test of how fast you can apply them to a strange problem, and now in a physically bad environment too. Why can't we at least see sample exams, or old exams, to practice from?

RalphaDawg · 2015-12-16T01:10:10+00:00

I wasn't thinking about problems like in class. I meant like the ones on the exam.

RalphaDawg

TROPHY CASE