- Jun 16, 2000
- 30,213
- 12
- 81
There is a message board for my CS class. I don't really read it, but I stumbled across a 51 post thread entitled "This is a horrible CS class!" I put in my 2 cents...I don't think they'll like it, but I'm right and they can't deny it.
Message no. 438[Branch from no. 269]
Posted by Mark Davis (mwd26) on Thursday, March 6, 2003 1:28am
I'm gonna throw something in here. I haven't read most
of the replies, and I'm too lazy to do so. But here
goes.
I am rather well versed in C++. I took it in high
school, and aced the AP exam. Going by that, I probably
would have breezed through the placement tests as well,
but chose to take the course instead. Why? Well, you
never know if this course teaches the language in a
different manner than how I learned. And I have noticed
some differences between this class and my high school
class.
-if I didn't know the language, and wasn't able to pick
up programming languages easily, I wouldn't learn
anything from this class. Lecture notes are supposed to
be NOTES of what the prof goes over. In this class, or
at least in CS164 and the one 171 lecture I've been to,
the notes ARE the lecture, the professor just reads
them, and if he doesn't cover it all, he says "just read
your notes later." That, to me, is an unacceptable
teaching style. Assignments aren't TOO bad, but labs
are a waste of everyone's time. I end up doing the
majority of my labs for my group because I can, and the
format allows for it, and we all want to get out early,
so why not? Well, the other people aren't really
learning much that way. But that doesn't seem to stop
us.
-CAY HORSTMAN. UGH. We used two textbooks in high
school, one by horstmann, another by someone else. We
rarely used Horstmann's book, and NEVER used his header
files. Why? We are supposed to be learning C++ here,
not his functions. We learn his functions, like
graphics and time and whatnot, as if they were standard
C++. They ARE NOT. Another thing. Those graphics
functions are terrible. For my final project for C++ in
high school I taught myself basic Win16 programming, and
wrote a class that made it accessable to those who only
know basic console programming, ie CS171 & 172. I was
an 11th grade student, and my function is, in my
opinion, far superior to Horstmann's ccc_win(they do
basically the same thing). Mine is easier to use, more
powerful, and frankly, mine WORKS. You have to jump
through too many hoops to get his to work, and even then
it doesn't work half the time.
-We go in the strangest order. It is week 9, and we are
just now using for loops and compound conditionals? We
did 'graphics' and objects in week 4? Very, very
illogical sequence.
-Am I gonna get my assignments back? We have very
strict style guides we must program by, how am I
supposed to know if I am following them or not? Again,
its week 9, I've had 3 assignments graded, and lost
points on all of them, but does it say why? Nope...so
how do i correct my errors if I don't know what they
are? I suppose that is a TA to TA issue.
It just seems to me that the way this course is taught
is very inefficient and does not prepare us well for
later classes. I may already know the language, but I
know that if I didn't, that I would be learning far less
from this class than I did from my high school class.
Come on, this is the foundation of my major, shouldn't
more effort be put into teaching us well?
Message no. 438[Branch from no. 269]
Posted by Mark Davis (mwd26) on Thursday, March 6, 2003 1:28am
I'm gonna throw something in here. I haven't read most
of the replies, and I'm too lazy to do so. But here
goes.
I am rather well versed in C++. I took it in high
school, and aced the AP exam. Going by that, I probably
would have breezed through the placement tests as well,
but chose to take the course instead. Why? Well, you
never know if this course teaches the language in a
different manner than how I learned. And I have noticed
some differences between this class and my high school
class.
-if I didn't know the language, and wasn't able to pick
up programming languages easily, I wouldn't learn
anything from this class. Lecture notes are supposed to
be NOTES of what the prof goes over. In this class, or
at least in CS164 and the one 171 lecture I've been to,
the notes ARE the lecture, the professor just reads
them, and if he doesn't cover it all, he says "just read
your notes later." That, to me, is an unacceptable
teaching style. Assignments aren't TOO bad, but labs
are a waste of everyone's time. I end up doing the
majority of my labs for my group because I can, and the
format allows for it, and we all want to get out early,
so why not? Well, the other people aren't really
learning much that way. But that doesn't seem to stop
us.
-CAY HORSTMAN. UGH. We used two textbooks in high
school, one by horstmann, another by someone else. We
rarely used Horstmann's book, and NEVER used his header
files. Why? We are supposed to be learning C++ here,
not his functions. We learn his functions, like
graphics and time and whatnot, as if they were standard
C++. They ARE NOT. Another thing. Those graphics
functions are terrible. For my final project for C++ in
high school I taught myself basic Win16 programming, and
wrote a class that made it accessable to those who only
know basic console programming, ie CS171 & 172. I was
an 11th grade student, and my function is, in my
opinion, far superior to Horstmann's ccc_win(they do
basically the same thing). Mine is easier to use, more
powerful, and frankly, mine WORKS. You have to jump
through too many hoops to get his to work, and even then
it doesn't work half the time.
-We go in the strangest order. It is week 9, and we are
just now using for loops and compound conditionals? We
did 'graphics' and objects in week 4? Very, very
illogical sequence.
-Am I gonna get my assignments back? We have very
strict style guides we must program by, how am I
supposed to know if I am following them or not? Again,
its week 9, I've had 3 assignments graded, and lost
points on all of them, but does it say why? Nope...so
how do i correct my errors if I don't know what they
are? I suppose that is a TA to TA issue.
It just seems to me that the way this course is taught
is very inefficient and does not prepare us well for
later classes. I may already know the language, but I
know that if I didn't, that I would be learning far less
from this class than I did from my high school class.
Come on, this is the foundation of my major, shouldn't
more effort be put into teaching us well?
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