Here are some tricks to get the most out of this course. Maybe you already heard some of these, but we hope some are new!
What to Expect With Office Hours
If you are more assertive than most you can walk up to the instructor after class (and he usually will hang out until anyone who has questions gets to ask), but the instructor and TAs also have office hours. Check the Office Hours Schedule to find a convenient one for you.
To get the most from them, consider these ideas:
- Pick a specific office hour and attend it every week. This is especially good if you find yourself struggling with the assignments a lot. It also gives the TA or Instructor a chance to know you, and who knows? You might need a letter of recommendation one day.
- It’s okay to be a “lurker”. Many students will attend and not ask questions, just to hear what other students are asking.
- You can get help from other students there too. If there are a lot of people, students often group up and help each other. Just be sure to follow the academic integrity policy (in this context it’s basically don’t show your MP code to another student.)
- Attend from the beginning and leave early if you have to. It is more likely that other students have the same questions and will ask them. If you arrive toward the end your question might already have been addressed and the students who are there will want to discuss other things.
- Go with a friend!
Don’t Treat Assignments Like Video Games
We see this a lot: a student is trying to get a question right and tries over and over again, not really thinking about the problem but guessing and letting the autograder say if it’s correct or not. Once they get it right (and get their points), they immediately go to the next problem without reflecting on why they got the right answer this time. As a result, they get the points, but not the knowledge. We call this “college as a video game.”
I get emails all the time from students who unexpectedly got to use this material on the job and were able to work more effectively from knowing it. We urge you to really try to learn the material. If you don’t know why the answer is right, ask on CampusWire or in office hours.
Be Careful Using LLMs
We won’t try to stop you from using LLMs. We can often tell if you did though:
- They will often suggest techniques we don’t cover in class (meaning you didn’t learn the technique that will be on the exam later!).
- You will get good scores on homeworks but be clueless when we talk to you in person… or when you go to take the exam.
If you ask an LLM for the solution to a homework problem and paste it in, even if you can read it and understand it, your brain will decide that the information is not necessary and delete it for you.
Letters of Recommendation
If you have any thought that you might want to go to graduate school, you need to start thinking now who will write your recommendation letters. Many faculty will declide a request from a student they don’t recognize or write a generic “they were in my class and got an A” kind of letter. Find a way to get to know some faculty. It doesn’t have to be this course --- in fact, later ones are better, but if you can do something like an honors project or attend office hours regularly you increase the chances that the faculty member will have good things to write about you later.