CS 373: Fall 2020

All good things come to an end. Welcome to my final blog entry for CS 373. “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” — Prof. Downing.

• How well do you think the course conveyed those takeaways?

I think the most useful pearl of wisdom that I received from this course was on how to write better Python. The course covered very well how to build & mimic containers in Python. Refactoring, although discussed at the end of the course (when we were all stressing about our group projects), was a useful introduction into common design patterns to improve our code. Decorators are also a useful tool, though I wish we covered them (and their use cases) in more detail.

• Were there any other particular takaways for you?

Python is my favorite language, mostly because I use it all the time for applications in data science & ML, and I TA’d for a course using Qiskit, IBM’s SDK for programming quantum computers. Python’s list comprehensions and generators are really useful for making good, readable code. I also understand much more clearly how to pass parameters in Python using unpacking.

• How did you feel about two-stage quizzes and tests?

I thought the second stage of the quizzes and tests were useful because it provided an opportunity to collaborate with my group and to understand different approaches to a problem. Our second-stage-solutions were almost always the “best parts” taken from of our code for stage one.

• How did you feel about cold calling?

Cold calling is really good. Especially in an online environment, it can be difficult to encourage student involvement. If you gave us the choice to answer questions, most people would choose not to. Additionally, it gave me the opportunity to witness the areas where other students struggle and to see in general where the class stood in terms of our knowledge of the course material.

• How did you feel about office hours?

I only had the opportunity to go to one office hour session. I was a little too busy to really take advantage of office hours this semester, but I appreciate that they are offered.

• How did you feel about lab sessions?

Same answer as previous. My group definitely took advantage of the help for our project.

• Give me your suggestions for improving the course.

I think a little introduction to Javascript earlier in the course would be helpful.