Reviews of professor Marius Minea

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
HW is very doable, just start early and go to office hours. He cares deeply about the success of his students and will answer forum posts at very early hours/weekends, but please reread HW specs, other posts, and think before asking. However, his exams are out for blood, the best way to prepare is to do as many practice exams as possible, good luck

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Marius is a tough but rewarding professor. His class requires serious work, but he provides abundant resources and support. I found Unstuckstudy to be a helpful study tool alongside the practice exams.

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Honestly I think he's a great professor, but his classes are terribly hard and he makes them way more difficult than they need to be. But if you love learning hard concepts then you should totally take his classes.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Start the projects early and you'll be fine.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Clear your schedule for this class- 10hrs/week of outside work on average
A lot will be expected of you, but you will learn a ton.
Lectures are clear but packed with information. I re-watched more than half of the lectures.
Work through the solutions to the practice exams to prep for exams
Use office hours, Campuswire, and free CS tutoring.
GL!

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Marius is a pleasant man who seems to care about student learning, but let's not pretend he's always been charming and lovable. His exams not being anything like the practice exams wasn't really a 220 aspect many people thought were reasonable. Still, his CW response speed is impressive.

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
It's a hard course but he's a good prof

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Great lecturer, very accessible for office hours, responds very fast on Piazza, tough grader but curves fairly, difficult exams and projects but UCAs/TAs/Marius himself are very helpful. Learned the most in this class out of all my classes at UMass.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Still better than 240 with Mark Wilson

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Marius may not be pregnant, but he never fails to deliver

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
This is a professor who will force you to work, and you will benefit from it. Clearly puts a lot of thought into designing assignments. Happy to work with anyone who will show up and put in effort. Very active and accessible on the class forum. One of those professors people either really like, or really don't (because they don't want to work imo).

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Marius is a very challenging professor, but you will undoubtedly become a better programmer from CS220. He expects a lot out of his students which forces you to work harder, learn more, and find the most effective study strategies. My advice: Start projects early, practice old exams early (do mock exams all the way through), and go to SI sessions.