Nico, Kim  

I don't think anyone can take this course with Dr.Nico without having at least some prior programming experience. But this is also true for all the other professors who teach this course. She is very helpful during office hours; friendly as well. I did find her lectures boring but the same goes for other professors. I think her grading policies and her tests were fair and simple. The homework load is a bit over but I think they were efficiently distributed so that there would be enough time to complete both lab and homework assignments. However if you fall back at any point during this course it is really hard to make up unless you ask her to help you out. She will be more than willingly to.

Well, let's start with the good. Dr. Nico definitely knows the material for discrete math hands down and thoroughly enjoys the subject, no doubt about that. She has plenty office hours including a two hour chunk of time each week where she has a reserved classroom to accommodate students with questions, and believe me you will have them. Her lecturing style is such that unless you have an extensive background in discrete math, it will take a great deal of concentration and hard work to understand the material she presents in class. The only graded homework is a set of about 5 to 10 problems due about every week. Most of the problems from these problem sets are quite difficult and even if you understood what she taught in class, you're out of luck because the link between some of the problems and lecture material is very vague. There is hope though because the midterms are nowhere near the difficulty level of the problem sets. I had to go to office hours quite frequently in order to understand the homework problems and yet with only a little studying, both of the two midterms were quite manageable. Beware though, she is a VERY picky grader, most of the time it's either all or nothing. Leave out a few symbols on a question and the points just disappear. Her teaching style is not the greatest. Throughout the quarter she did a number of very complex proofs on the board that pertained to theorems we were learning but made absolutely no sense because some of the logic involved was way over our heads. She

Prof. Nico had the joy of teaching an un-fun, brutal required class for her first teaching experience at Poly. The class drained my will to live, let alone be a CSc student, at times, but in the end, I can't give a really poor rating for her. Does she know Discrete Math? Like the back of her hand. Does that help or hinder? Probably both. She admitted to over-teaching the course, and since few, if any, of us had any Discrete Math background, it was a steep learning curve. However, she did her best to help with that by adding extra office hours (which were a necessity for me) and always answering emails. Did I have a lot of fun with Dr. Nico? Not really. Did I learn? More than I ever wanted to. Do I recommend her? Why not. No matter what class you take with her, it will be tough, no question, but take her class, be prepared to have hard homework (though it isn't heavily weighted), average tests, and to learn.

Prof. Nico is very enthusiastic about teaching this subject, she mentioned multiple times her love for discrete math...however, she cannot teach the material no matter how hard she tries. she is more than willing to help, but during office hours she is very condenscending, and will probably confuse you even more. i understand that she tries really hard to teach this stuff, but she doesnt' understand that we dont' get it. take someone else if you can help it.

She happens to be the worst teacher I have had yet but that doesnt say much because i've only been here for 2 quarters. She knows the information like its nothing and she should being a software engineer. Most of the information was way over our heads and the problem sets were impossible unless you went to hours and hours of office time every single week where she would give hints. Her midterms arent that bad but her final was pretty dificult. I gave up early on and tried to fix it way too late which explains my grade. Luckily she is not teaching this course next quarter but i would not recommend her as a teacher in any course!

She really knows her material, and is in love with the subject. Unfortunately that does not make a good teacher. She is a hard grader in that there is no partial credit for all practicality. In a class with a book that does not help, with this bad teacher everything is just that much worse. If possible, take another teacher for the subject because even though she knows the material, she can not teach it if her life depended on it.

In short, Professor Nico is not skilled in teaching new material. This is because she offers little to no introduction for new topics. The only reason the course was passable for me was because the middle of the quarter built on the material in the beginning. After sorting out the basics for the first few weeks, her lectures began to make sense because they were only a small step above the original material. But again at the end of the quarter, when we started talking about circuits, she just started drawing pictures on the board assuming we knew what she meant when we didn't. This does not mean that the subject matter was difficult, but it is like trying to teach algebra to someone who doesn't know what a function is; it just doesn't work. She was also very strict about notation. If you either overstate something or understate something from her VERY specific requirements, you lose points. Her homework was also excessively difficult, but the tests were pretty simple. She does have a genuine desire to help her students do well and her office hours can be quite beneficial. Because it was her first quarter, I do believe that her teaching skills will improve in time, but as it stands now, I would recommend avoiding her if you can, unless you believe you have a firm base in the subject matter of the course.

Professor Nico was a pretty good professor. It was easy to tell that she really loved discrete math and computer science in general. She was always excited to lecture about new topics. Although the material was quite challenging, she really tried to help us out. She held special two hour office hours every week, where you could ask her about homework, lectures or just random things about computer science. She also held review sessions before midterms and the final where people could ask her about midterm topics. She was able to answer and clarify most of the questions that were asked. As others have said, she assigns some pretty challenging homework assignments, but there's only one assignment due a week. At first glance some problems, the problems might not seem too hard, but don't be fooled! Work on them early and go to office hours because she can lead you in the right direction. This class will definitely take a lot of work, but I would recommend it to anyone who really wants to learn a lot!

Not a bad instructor. She clearly wanted to teach us a crapload about discrete mathematics. Her homework sets were hard, but were doable if you put enough time into it. I usually didn't. CSC141 is one of those classes that are deemed worthless , and I'd agree to an extent. Much of the material is better presented in other classes. I thought her tests were pretty interesting and original. Also, she is always happy and excited about teaching. Recommended for those who want less of the robotic teaching I've heard happens in the other 141 classes.

As a bit of a warning, the other reviews of Kim forced me into this... She is quite possibly the biggest, most condescending bitch I have ever encountered. Her lectures were beyond masturbatory, and her obvious love for such a dreary subject did nothing to enhance them. Several times, with my grade waning, I made attempts to get help during her office hours. These sessions did not go well. I'm convinced that, in her free time, she thought up confusing analogies as a kind of a fun game for herself, to see just how many students she could befuddle. Take Parham, and be glad you did.

Nico is amazingly knowledgable about her subject. Corollary-- she should never have been unleashed on undergrads (teaching math at least). If you love proofs and theorems and need no further explanation, then you'll be happy in her class. If you need the concepts explained in the vernacular then you'll be up a creek. I think it would be possible to survive her class if you went to every office hour (I mean, EVERY one). Just remember; she is VERY good at what she does. If you have a chance to take a 'practical' course with her, by all means do so. Despite failing her class I still have a good relationship with her.

Dr. Kim Nico's lab instructions oozed with errors and inconsistencies. On the rare occasion that she would correct some of them, she would sometimes announce them in lab and not send out an email informing the rest of us about the change. She would constantly ignore the people who needed two minutes of her time to demo their lab in favor of idiots who needed twenty minutes for her to tell them how to turn on a computer. I'm glad I'm out.

What else is there to say? Fine person, nothing interesting. Class was meh... Blah, blah, blah... Fine person.