How to do well

In prior semesters, students have found both the textbook and prior examlets to be invaluable resources. To do well, we recommend 1) reading the textbook before each class, 2) participating in in-class problem solving, 3) completing the homeworks, and 4) solving past examlets before each of our examlets.

Help from course staff

This is a hard class. Even if you have never needed help in the past, you may need it this term. If you struggle with any of the steps outlined above, do not be shy about coming into office hours or asking questions (e.g. in lecture, on Piazza). That's why they exist.

The course staff don't bite. We remember when we took hard math classes and needed help ourselves.

Don't worry that your question might be stupid. Probably a whole bunch of other people also have the same question and will appreciate the fact that you asked it.

Study groups

Some parts of the assigned work must be done on your own. However, study groups can be extremely helpful for everything else. Your classmates can help you find mathematical bugs and, just as important, give you social support. Get to know the other students, e.g. in your lecture.

Examlets

On the Exams page, you'll find a skills list and rubric for each examlet. Use the skills list to help study for the examlet. Also review the rubrics to get a sense of what types of open-ended questions we may ask on the examlets.

When examlet grades are released on PrairieLearn, you'll be able to see comments from the graders as well as the model solution. Make sure you understand any mistakes you've made. If you don't understand how you lost points, seek help from the course staff.

If you're not doing well in a course, you'd normally want to talk to the instructor or perhaps your departmental advisor. Lately, however, overcrowding has made this hard to do. So here are the most standard sorts of advice we'd give you in person. Come see us if this isn't enough.

Are you really doing so badly?

How badly are you really doing? In high school, you were one of the top couple students and you could get all A's. However, everyone in our CS program was a top student in high school. B is not a bad grade. If your high school preparation was iffy (e.g. your high school wasn't the best), then you should worry even less about a B in this class. It takes a few courses for differences in background to smooth away.

In this program, a reasonable goal is to get A's in the courses that most interest you, especially your upper-level elective courses and projects. No one is very good at everything. An employer or graduate school will want you to show that you're very good at something. Sure, a future theoretician should have an A in CS 173, but a future prize-winning hardware designer might not. Your first couple years in college should be about finding the area of CS that suits you.

If you need to take CS 374 (i.e. CS and CE majors), a grade below B- in CS 173 could be a real worry. Finish the term as well as you can, but also speak to your departmental advisor about whether to repeat the class or take other theoretical classes (e.g. statistics) between CS 173 and CS 374.

Special situations:

Why are you doing badly?

Do any of these seem to characterize your situation? (More than one might apply.)