Advice from Previous Students

As part of my end-of-term TA evaluation, I have asked students what advice they would give to a friend planning to take this course next semester. Here are responses from 72 students from the past five semesters, grouped into categories of my making:

Keep up with the homework.

• Do the homework.
• Start on your homework right after it is assigned.
• Don't slack off. Start writing your programs as soon as you can. Don't put it off till the weekend or the night before its due.
• Keep up with the homwork (no matter how many points it is).
• Assignments are to be as done as soon as possible. Simple is safer than complex.
• Finish the homework within deadline and don't wait for last moment.
• Try your best on every assignment.
• Get a good understanding of each assignment well ahead of the due date and try not to be late on assignments. Many of the harder assignments incorporate the same concepts from previous assignments so it might be a good idea to complete all assignments as well as understand them. Don't procrastinate!
• Get into the habit of starting the assignment early. Though the earlier assignments may only take a few minutes to complete, the assignments later in the semester can often take hours and even days to complete.
• Keep up with the lab assignments, really help improve your final grade.
• Do not procrastinate with the homework, you are very screwed if you do that.
• Start early and ask lots of questions. Even though at the beginning of the semester the assignments may seem simple, they do get progressively harder.
• Do the assignments when they're first assigned and work diligently. Don't get distracted with other things while doing your work.
• Like what everyone said before me: "Don't fall behind and do the assignments." For me, learning in this class meant you had to practice the assignments. That way it becomes familiar and it will help in future assignments and exams.
• Starting the lab assignments early should be the number one stressed strategy.
• Try to do your lab assignments quickly and on time, the more time you give yourself to do the assignment, the easier it will be.
• Be patient when doing the assignments. All assignments will not be as easy as they are in the beginning.
• Keep up with the homework
• Start right away, don't always rely on help (sorry that I always did!)
• At least start all assignments, especially at later times in the semester, to see how hard a simple task can really be.
• I wouldn't recommend starting your assignment on Sunday like I did all semester, but I have a few years of coding experience outside of Java so I felt pretty comfortable with the new language.
• Do assignments on time
• Like everyone else who's ever taken this class has said, DON'T PROCRASTINATE! Especially with the last few assignments, which are more time-consuming. Even if you are able to still get a good/decent grade with a few points taken off, it still doesn't feel good to have not been able to do your best on a project. And the stress will probably kill you :-b
• Start on the homework early!
• Work on the assignments a little everyday, don't do it all the day before or two days before it is due, and email the TA with questions.
• Don't procrastinate, and ask for help if you need it. The TA is very patient.
• Keep up with the homework and always ask the TA for help.
• Don't fall behind, and start the assignments, especially the latter ones, the day that they are assigned.
• Make sure Zach is your TA. It's a lot easier to program/ask questions when Zach is there in person, Emailing back and forth breaks your rhythm, since there will probably be 1-2 hour delay, when your trying to complete a program that takes 4,8,12+ hours. SO, make sure you have at least attempted/started the programs so you can ask questions in the Lab before the program is due. Also, as soon when you hit OOP the programs get a lot longer and harder and you won't be able to wait until the night before programs are due to start.
• do your shit on time, there is no excuse not to. its easy, and if you don't think so, nerds love to show off their intelligence, so i am sure you can find someone to help you.
• I would tell them to start their projects early. Also when coding do not just jump in and code right away. Plan out what you're going to do, then code things part by part. Check if those parts work, then move forward.
• Never procrastinate on doing an assignment. Always ask for help when you need it.
• Don't get behind, listen to TA and always ask TA questions.

Come to class and keep up with the material.

• Come to every lab and lecture
• Don't skip lecture or labs; labs are where you get most of your help from.
• Make sure you understand the material.
• Make sure to read course materials constantly.
• Even though subjects are talked about over and over again in lab and lecture always take notes. it helps to keep writting them.
• Study hard.
• Study hard and don't fall behind on work!
• start early. make a friend, and ask for help if you need it.
• keep up with labs. use your ep ONLY for extra credit, not for catch up
• Definitely read past advise from others (Cause Zach posts them up on his site) I read them and I felt that most, if not all were very helpful. This class seems pretty easy at first, but the concepts and assignments get more intense, so don't start slacking. A very fun class once you get the hang of concepts, so be sure to go to lab and lecture!
• Go to every class!
• My advice would be go to lab every lab time, and keep up on reading text and try not to fall behind on the lab assignments.
• Think of how you can apply the knowledge. Do the work (don't copy). Go to class. Read the book. Start your code asap.
• run any sample code that you get
• It is vital that you read the textbook. For one thing, it gives you a heads up and to get ahead and it clarifies any concerns you might have. KEEP UP WITH THE HOMEWORK!
• Pay most attention in lab because the class part just covers concepts.
• Go to all lectures and listen well.
• Never miss the lab sessions and try to put more effort in writing programs rather than reading the course material.
• Show up to lab and try doing the extra credit when you can, the extra points really help in the end.
• Go to labs, and make sure your TA is Zach.
• actually read the textbook to do well on the exams.
• OH MY GOSH TRY TO STAY AHEAD OF THE ASSIGNMENTS!!! If you fall behind, expect to work overtime trying to catch up.
• DON'T MISS LAB! Once you miss a single lab, you fall FAR BEHIND! So, if you want to do good in this class DON'T MISS LAB!!!
• If you take the time to understand the language, the lab section is a lot more manageable.
• Study more than usual
• Don't fall behind, always ask for help if you need it
• i would just say stay on top of the work. do all the assignments and turn them in on time. everything gets built upon so you need to start strong and keep it up through the whole semester.
• it's easy if you show up
• Review lecture material before and after. Then use what was reviewed in a number of ways for practice. Exercises would help.

This course is going to take a lot of time.

• Make time to work.
• A LOT of time needs to be put aside for programming assignments.
• Don't have a life; your whole focus is going to be ICS.
• On your free time, try making your own programs if you don't understand some concepts. It makes it easier if you understand the basics before learning new ones. Also, try to guess what would be in the next homework and start a program that may contain the algorithm.
• This course takes so much time, it is important to make a reasonable semester schedule. I was always thinking about this course (H.W.) during the semester
• Be prepared to spend a lot of time on the class. Especially, if you have never had programming experience or knew nothing about computers like me, you must have a lot of time to commit or else your grade will suffer. Also, go to every single lab...it's a lot more helpful and less time consuming that trying to read the book and figuring out how to do something.
• Make sure you have a lot of time to dedicate towards studying for mid-terms and writing your programs. Never wait until the night before to START them. Pay attention to the smaller assignments and concepts, as they help you get through the harder ones.
• Don't start an assignment if you have anything planned in 1 or 2 hours, because fixing your errors can take a while and it sucks having your train of thought interrupted.

Make sure you want to be here.

• Don't take it: it's too hard.
• Unless you are serious, do not take the class.
• Listen well.
• Since it is a lab class with computers don't get distracted and surf the web
• Pay attention in lab. Don't surf the net!!
• Pay good attention....thats what got me through.
• Do not take the class if you are not an ICS major, it will take your whole life.
• Don't take it unless you don't mind spending most of your week or weekends on JUST code. Don't be afraid to ask the TA for help, he really does a good job at explaining.
• Don't just half-ass it because it shows.
• If you do your work, you'll be fine.
• If you have any specific questions, ask the TA.
• Ask the TA and other students for help! This is a difficult course, and I would not have passed this class without prior experience with programming.
• Don't take it. It's not worth the hell that you have to go through. It is best if you just learn at your home pace at home.