One of the curses of the CSA department is the infamous Database Systems course- CSA 385. Taught by, and only taught by, Dr. Yuksel Uckan, this class is the absolute definition of hell. As of taking this class this semester, I am proud to say that my extensive knowledge and experience of utilizing databases in a web and business environment was absolutely useless.

First off, Oracle is your friend- the command line is not. If you want to save yourself the trouble of retyping over an over again commands into the command prompt when you create your databases, go ahead and download/install Oracle’s lovely GUI that – let’s face it – real people, in the real world, really use.

Dr. Yuksel Uckan is stuck in the early 70’s where theory overruled practical implementation, so don’t expect to actually use your databases for anything. You will simply have 5 assignments where you enter sql and print what it spits back at you. Otherwise, your best bet is to focus 100% on his definitions: word for word. Wikipedia was my best friend for this class, but don’t expect to get an A copying down the Wikipedia definition (even though that definition might be scientifically accepted). Dr. Uckan’s definition is the only definition accepted (seriously, don’t question it). Which might I add is a bit rough when your first exam consists of quite a few definitions.

Now a lot of people say he was really rude and obnoxious at his office hours and would provide little help. I have to say that was not my experience. If you are polite and show an eagerness to understand, then he will help you during his office hours- when he’s there. Realize this guy has probably been smoking since he walked out of the womb, so if he’s not there, wait 10 minutes because he’s not about to quit smoking because you want help on trying to understand existential quantification.

Another peeve that I have is teachers not using blackboard. Everything you need from his class comes from his directory at http://handouts.eas.muohio.edu/uckany. In fact there is no blackboard for his course so you better be keeping track of your grades on your own. Some things to keep in mind though, your homework is not a very good study tool. Not because the homework doesn’t reflect some problems you will see on your exams, but because you may not get your homework back in time! Yes, there were many times when we would turn in homework and not see it again until after we took an exam.

There were some incentives however this semester to combat his terrible teaching strategy – or lack there of. We had a make-up exam for our midterm because everyone but maybe 3-4 people failed it. Of course the makeup- aside from including four problems identical to the original- was equally challenging. Also, our final exam would replace our lowest exam score, and then count as our final exam. So our final counted twice. I was hoping to write this after our final grades came out, but they haven’t yet so I will hopefully get that up soon.

If I could offer any real advice to anyone considering to take this course it would be: 1) look at what other people have said on “rate my professor” and 2) wait until he retires if you can. Really, he’s old, and a smoke break away from a heart attack. They have to find someone else to teach that course eventually! I might also add, these opinions are not only gripes of those who’ve taken his course, but there are some on the faculty who would agree with us.

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