Worst professor with worst grading scheme!

I personally feel that Sherstov is a pretty overrated professor. People make him out to be much more captivating and engaging than he really is, which makes you think this class is easier than a typical upper div. I personally felt he had a Smallberg esque teaching style, where he spends an eternity developing an idea and you just can't focus long enough to see it to full comprehension. Also, his tests are not easy. This material is really complicated and proof oriented. I am prob gonna get hate for these reviews because some people love him as a professor. This isn't to say he's not a good lecturer, but hes made out to be way better than he actually is, especially in the context of CS professors at UCLA(but I think this speaks more towards the low quality of lecturing at UCLA rather than this man's individual brilliance).

Professor Sherstov is hands down, without a doubt, my favorite professor of all time. He is genuinely the most honest, down-to-earth, lighthearted professor I've ever had the pleasure of taking a class with. If I got a C in this class, I would not be disappointed at all because at least I got to take an Alexander Sherstov class. I don't even know where to start: he doesn't record lectures but he doesn't need to because the pace at which he goes by in class is just right and perfectly digestible. If you absolutely need to miss a class for whatever reason, all you gotta do is shoot him an email and he'll send a lecture video from a previous quarter he taught where he did in fact record. He gives so many examples and walkthroughs during class and his homework is challenging enough to prepare you for the exams. He has 2 midterms and 1 final, none of which are cumulative. In my opinion, the first midterm is the hardest because the subject material (regular and nonregular languages) was the hardest for me to grasp, but typically people find the second midterm the hardest because of the subject material (context-free languages, context-free grammars, and pushdown automata). He has built-in curves for the exams and they are extremely generous in my opinion: you can earn up to 30 points on the midterm, but they are recorded out of 25 points in the gradebook (for example, a 23/30 translates to a 23/25, a 25/30 translates to a 25/25, and anything above a 25/30 is capped at 25/25). There are SO MANY opportunities for partial credit on every single problem (it's kind of amazing how many different cases the TAs come up with just to give you some partial credit) so that 5 point buffer is very generous. At the time of writing this, the amount of grace points on the final is TBD (but more likely than not, you can earn up to 35 points on the final but will be recorded out of 30 points with the same idea about the point cap).

This class seemed like a boring CS-theory class that all CS majors have to take but oh boy did this quickly turn into my favorite class of all time. Realistically, most of us won't use these concepts in the real world but this class has really shaped me so much into being an analytical thinker and this is something anyone can for sure take away and use outside of school and in the real world. Sherstov doesn't have a single ounce of hatred, anger, or disappointment in his body: he makes this content very easily accessible to all his students and he TRULY cares about his students.

My favorite quality of Sherstov is how he tries to learn the names of anyone who talks to him, despite him teaching a class size of 160 students. I feel so welcomed in his class when I talk to him and he personally addresses me by my name. This is not an easy class at all but if there's anyone who's going to teach it well, it's Alexander Sherstov

I really enjoyed taking Theory of Computing with Sherstov. He is very passionate about the topics and explains them clearly and engagingly. His lectures are well-structured and he uses a lot of examples and diagrams to illustrate the concepts. He also has amazing communication skills and is always available to answer questions and give feedback. The homeworks are challenging but they help you learn a lot and prepare you for the exams. The exams are fair and he provides practice exams that cover the main points. I would highly recommend this course to anyone taking CS181

Best class I've ever taken in my life. It was magical.

This course is the perfect model of how a class should be. There are a million examples for everything. A million practice problems for every exam. Everything is well-explained. And it's STILL challenging.
I'm so sick of professors who don't provide enough examples or leverage the amount of material they give you, so this class is a breath of fresh air. The grade is 80% exams, and they can be difficult but there's zero bullshit: you know exactly what's gonna be on there before you take it.
Some reviews mention that you have to come up with creative solutions yourself instead of just following some algorithm, which is true. Welcome to computer science!

first and foremost , a great professor doesnt need to be just an easy one, this class is not easy but not difficult either. However, Sherstov completely changed my opinion about this class , i thought this might be a boring class at the beginning, but now this is my favorite subject and favorite class at UCLA so far. Sherstov is an amazing person and a professor, he teaches both the course material and some life lessons in his lectures, he is such an inspiring person who always motivated me to think and learn more and more. I am also impressed by his diligence, patience and understanding, he and his TAs work extra hard to remove our stress and to make everything available to us. He is certainly the best professor I've seen so far, I hope I can take more classes with him.

I'm a sub 3.0 GPA student, and I got an A in this class. His passion for teaching and the subject matter is contagious (I couldn't care less about automation before this class and now I'm hooke). Quite frankly the best professor I've had the pleasure to listen to. I believe every student believes that the grade they get in the class is perfectly justified. The class is designed for you to succeed as long as you put in effort.

Absolutely with no doubt the best professor in the CS department, if you are tired of the unclear and unorganized random lectures from other CS professors, (we all know who they are, no disrespect, but that is torture) welcome to prof. Sherstov's lecture where you will feel like you are still truly loved by the world.
This class is not easy but he made it clear and understandable. He is passionate about his class and he is patient to answer all the questions. There are 10 homeworks that takes 20% of the total grade, but they are grade by effort, so basically just participation points, although understand hw would definitely help with your exams so, try hard.
there are 4 exams which take 80% of total grades. 25 points available but 20 is full credit. So you have some room. The exam is doable if you know the material, and he provides lots of practice exams. Every time before an exam I just took some time to go through the practice exams and I got 21-ish (full credit) for all my exams.
In conclusion, BEST PROFESSOR to me!

Like others have mentioned, Sherstov is a masterful teacher who knows his stuff and keeps students' attention from the very first day of class to the very last. His philosophy, which I greatly admire, is that "class attendance is earned", meaning that the professor should be the one to motivate students to come to class and learn instead of making attendance mandatory. And boy, does he earn it. He makes the boring stuff come to life. He really explains concepts well. But you'd be fooling yourself if you thought the course was therefore a walk in the park. On the contrary, this was not one of my best courses at UCLA by a longshot, and the fact that the professor is this great of a help instead of a hindrance makes all the difference in the world. The material is hard, and I did find myself struggling on exams sometimes. Practicing with the practice exams he posts online is ESSENTIAL. But the office hours the TA's and Sherstov held were always extremely helpful. The course will start out easy, but you can easily fall behind if you don't keep up with his lecture material. There's so much material, the exams are scheduled on the discussion sections instead of the lectures. For that reason, having exams every 2 weeks did get a bit overwhelming after a while. But I'm incredibly thankful for Sherstov; he's a really great inspiration and I wish all professors in academia (not just from UCLA) were more like him.