Thomas Moore

Where's the F-?

I am taking a Java class that Moore is teaching. We have been watching him talk about recycled examples all semester, with no real discussion of how everything actually comes together. The funniest thing is, he didn't have us writing ANY code until the middle of the 2nd test, more than halfway through the semester. Yes...you heard me...our class's first experience writing code was on a test. He also seems to enjoy putting students on the spot, just to tear them apart in front of their peers. Some days I wanted to stab myself multiple times rather than go through another one of his "lectures."

Tom Moore is a horrible horrible teacher!! I have to laugh when rating coolness because I think he tries a little to hard. Moore knows Java, but is a poor teacher. He is so lazy and unwilling to give any type of help. The way he makes jokes in class about certain people and even himself is not that funny and pretty offensive. He is not a worthwhile professor and should be avoided at all costs.

I've read all the comments already made by others about Moore, and I have to say that, while the comments are indicative of what you'll hear about him in the lab, I never thought he was really THAT bad, even when I spent nearly all my time (night and day) in the lab 6 days a week for 3 weeks, mostly because of this class (I did have several other classes at the time that were more challenging, and I'm pretty sure the reason I found 355 so difficult was because I didn't yet have the programming background that one really should have before taking it...) That said, as one of the people whom Moore belittled in class, I never really hated him for it--I took much worse abuse from managers in meetings in the real world--managers who in fact had no idea whatsoever what they were talking about. When Moore dresses you down, I've never gotten the impression that it's done malevolently, although it could be done with a bit more tact. What perhaps mitigates the harshness with which I view Moore is the fact that I spent a lot of time in his office, probably more than most of the people who rated him so poorly. In his office he is almost always a completely different person, although he has the same expectations of you as he does in class, which, as one person has said, seem sometimes to change without notice. My one outstanding gripe about Moore has got to be the ridiculous final he gave us for this class. I don't know how else to say it, but "ridiculous". Our knowledge could have been tested just as efficiently with about 1/4 of what was expected on that exam. The reason I did so miserably on it? Not because I couldn't write a JUnit test, but because to have actually finished writing the JUnit test for that final would have required about 20 sheets of paper and 5 packs of pencils. And that doesn't begin to discuss the other half of the exam, which could only have been meant to make us irrevocably despise STRUTS. The one thing that really stands out in my mind about the lectures is that he's constantly bringing up his 2 year (?) stint at Schneider National, as though that experience alone makes him the most qualified guy in the department to talk to about "the real world"...at no time, however, do I recall him ever making his experience at Schneider National a RELEVANT part of his lecture. :-/

I feel REALLY bad for the class ahead of me that had this guy for 2 classes!! Tom Moore is the worst professor anyone could ever have! Since when does a professor ask for participation and then yell at who ever took a guess because they were wrong. And, who the f@&* gives a quiz where you have to write out struts in a JSP by hand AND a JUnit test with 9 parameters. I did get an excellent grade in the class, but only because I went through hell and back. The class was not organized and Moore was very unclear about everything. Why he is still a professor is a mystery to everyone in the CS major.