Tips for COP3014
- START YOUR PROGRAMS EARLY!!!!
- I cannot stress this point enough. For those of you who decide to take this advice from the get-go, you'll
do just fine in the course. These are not like homework assignments in other courses. The amount of code that comprises
a solution to the problem may not be very long, however it takes lots of time, thinking, and planning to come
up with "what to do, when to do it, and why it's being done". If you're stuck or having problems with
any of the homeworks, email your TA for help or... (See the next bullet point).
- GO TO OFFICE HOURS!
- The Teaching Assistants and myself have office hours for a REASON. This is not an easy course. Do not feel like
"if I go to office hours I'm obviously not doing well in the course" -- this is NOT the case and should NOT be why/when
students utilize office hours. These are basically open help sessions, and are extremely helpful ESPECIALLY if you've
never had any programming experience before (which is the case for most of the students in the course).
USE OFFICE HOURS WISELY. You can also attend the office hours of ANY TA.
- READ THE BOOK
- The textbook is a great addition to the course notes. Read the sections listed under each week on the course
calendar (Trust me, it's not toooooo much to read) -- this can help solidify your understanding of each topic
before its taught in class... super helpful.
- DON'T FALL BEHIND
- BINGE LEARNING IS NOT RECOMMENDED
- If there's a topic you're not quite grasping, don't put off understanding it... in this course, many topics
we will learn require a full understanding of previous topics in the course. If you feel like you need more
help with a particular topic, that's what office hours are for! :)
- ATTEND CLASS
- Class attendance is required to do well in this course. Attendance in recitations is also required and there
may sometimes be graded excercises for you to complete during class or recitations.
- DO THE EXERCISES
- You will be given ungraded exercises on the day's material every Tuesday and Thursday. The solutions will be posted about a week later. It is recommended that you attempt to solve these problems by yourself nstead of waiting for the solutions. This will definitely help ypu do well in the course.