Each semester, we ask students to pass on some advice to those that will come after them. They fill out anonymous forms (so there was no pressure to say something nice). This is what they said…

• Don’t leave homework until the last minute! That’s when all the bugs show up (this was written by an enormous number of students

• Do your work as soon as you get it. Do not procrastinate… otherwise forget about using your Sundays for something else.

• Get started on lab and homework early so that you’ll have time to get help.

• Go to the help session when you are stuck on homework and start your homework as soon as possible.

• Do not fall behind. Make sure you understand everything early on an regularly seek extra help once it becomes more challenging later in the semester.

• Be aware that the workload tends to ramp up at the end of the semester. The first couple of weeks may not be a good representation of the workload at the end.

• Join the study group if you are struggling

• If you don’t understand a specific concept, NEVER ignore that because it WILL haunt you later. Make use of the help resources.

• Learn from web resources: learn why code doesn’t work and how other people solve them – find your own approaches

• Make sure you keep up. I wish I would used TA help sessions + my professor’s office hours more frequently.

• Do lots of practice problems. Best way to study is lots of practice.

• Learn from practice.

• Always review homework before taking the test.

• Study by doing. Just keep learning coding and practice, practice, practice. I wish I had focused better on practice problems for the exams.

• Study in groups but make sure you understand the material on HWs/Labs where you could do them individually if necessary.

• Don’t let your teammate do all the work for you. Make sure both partners do everything.

• Approach each HW problem like a puzzle

  • Write out what you know
  • Look for connections or ways to simplify the problem
  • Look at different possible approaches
  • Select the best approach and test your code along the way
  • Comments make it easier (and faster) to fix mistakes.