Some Advice for Students

You need to put in effort in order to be successful.  Taking a class is not a passive activity!  Here is some advice for being successful in this course.

1.  Work outside of class.
   1. Amount: on average you should expect to spend a minimum of three hours outside of class for each hour in lecture.
   2. Reading: Keep up with the class reading! You should plan to read the material several times.  Read material before it is covered in class, and then again after class. If you have questions, write them down. If these questions don't get covered, ask in class and/or meet with the TA or professor.
   3. Engage in ACTIVE reading: The reading of the material after lecture should be much more active. After you read a section, check to see if you have really understood it. For example, if there were programs discussed, see if you can actually DO the program yourself (without looking!).  Compare your solution to that in the book and reason about which is better and why.
   4. Doing exercises: A good way to tell whether or not you are understanding the material is to do the exercises in the book.  If you can't do an exercise, read the material again.  Also, try programming up examples from the text (without looking at the text). If you still can't do the exercise, plan on attending office hours to talk with the TA or professor.
   5. Go over lecture material after class (see below). Compare what was learned in lecture with what is in the book.
2. Attending Lectures
   1. Come to every lecture. Every professor has a personal understanding of an (introductory) course and teaches the material according to a personal style. It is important to get used to and to exploit this "personalization of courses".
   2. Come prepared to participate.  Attending lecture is not a passive activity. Come prepared; ask questions; participate!
   3. Take notes. Even though there are many handouts and much of the teaching is done from slides, copies of the slides do not tell the whole story.  Jot down notes on the slides.  These might be additional points made during lecture, or spurred by a student comment/question, or simple clarification.
   4. Come to every lecture.  Do not be fooled into thinking that you can get the lecture material from another source (the class slides or notes from a friend).  This is a mistake.  The class slides don't contain all of the material, and the notes your friend takes may work for him/her (because they were at the lecture) but they won't work for you (because you were not). 
   5. Come to every lecture. Attendance is required.
3. Talk to the teachers.
   1. If the lecture and the notes leave you with questions on the material, see your TA or professor during office hours or make an appointment or use email.
4. Keep up.
   1. Experience proves that students who fall behind (especially early) quickly drop out. So, keep up with the readings, labs and homeworks. Ask for additional problems, if the homeworks/labs failed to make a point.