Setting yourself up for success in CS 103

Elena Sierra and Ryan Guan's (23-24 ACE instructor) summary of tips from CS 103's "How to Succeed" + ACE-specific recommendations from past students. These are suggestions, not requirements by any means, but hopefully you will find them useful in planning out your approach to the course!

Keeping up with lecture

Lecture attendance is required this quarter!

If you cannot attend lectures (and have chosen the other grading option) or miss a lecture, make concrete plan to watch the videos

103 builds on top of previous content, and reading the lecture slides will not fully catch you up. If you can, budget some extra time to review on top of the 1.5 hours of video. Feel free to ask me any questions that arise!

Each ACE section covers the previous week's content. We'll focus on practice problems rather than recapping lecture, so you'll get the most out of it with knowledge of the lectures.

Understanding lecture content

Take notes

The lectures will often mention additional information that isn't on the slides. Also, taking notes can help you reinforce the material. Since there are many symbols, I recommend something else you can write freely on (pencil&paper). It's particularly useful to record which formal definitions/symbols were introduced in which lectures.

Between lectures, explore problems

Doing practice problems is helpful to understand concepts from 103 more deeply, because the problem sets/exams center around applying definitions instead of just repeating facts. You will get the chance to do practice problems in a focused environment during ACE section, but I recommend doing more! Here are some other ways to explore the concepts:

• Do the exercises in the Guides posted on the website.
• Look back at a theorem proved in lecture. Write your own proof from scratch, without looking at the lecture proof.
• Consider watching Youtube or reading other sites to supplement your learning — be aware that they may use different terms or approaches.
• Feel free to send me any notes/questions/rewritten proofs for feedback!

Using ACE resources

Engage in section as much as you can

ACE is meant to be interactive and tailored to your needs. Come with questions, and support your classmates' learning by discussing with them!

While practicing, keep the broader picture in mind

The goal of ACE practice problems is not just to get to the right answer but to see techniques that will be helpful for new problems. Notice the techniques and apply them on your own to the additional practice problems and/or to the problem sets. You can use the worksheet solutions as a reference.

Take advantage of ACE office hours, and contact me for help

My job is to help support you through 103. Please don't be afraid to ask me questions and let me know how I can best help you!

Approaching the problem sets

Learn LaTeX

I highly recommend writing your problem sets using LaTeX, which is a useful typesetting system for math classes and research papers! Check out the CS 103 guide to LaTeX.

Start early and pace yourself

The problem sets in this class are too long to do in one sitting. Since problems are released on Fridays, look through them over the weekend. Try to attempt one or two problems each day, rather than doing the whole problem set at once. Along the same lines, try to save your "late days" for emergencies and the end of the quarter.

Get help when you need it

It's completely normal to get confused or not be sure what to do! You can discuss with your problem set partner, come to office hours, send me a Slack message, or post on Ed. One strategy that works for me: If you find yourself unsure how to proceed, think about it independently for 15 minutes. After that, if you're still stuck, ask for help, and move onto a different problem.

Try to understand every problem

The problems on the problem sets use different skills, and all of the material is fair game for the exams. If you're working with a partner on the problem sets, try to do each problem yourself. If you skipped or didn't finish a problem for any reason, go back after the problem set is turned in, attempt any problems that you did not do, and get feedback from me or the Ed forum.

Revisit your graded work

The grading comments in 103 are meant to encourage you when you're doing things correctly and help you understand what to do differently next time. If you do not understand a comment, ask me or post on Ed. If you didn't do so well on a proof question, rewrite the proof taking into account the comments you got, and ask me or post on Ed for feedback.