CS371p Spring 2020 Final Entry: Rahul Ramaswamy

May 10th, 2020

What did you like the least about the class?

I think that a decent portion (maybe like 30–40%) of the class material felt like a review of Java/C to me since C++ is very similar to Java/C in some cases. Some of the concepts I think had already been ingrained into me from previous classes (314, 429, 439). I would have liked to see more new material if possible, or more time on a reinforcement of the new material instead of this large review portion.

What did you like the most about the class?

I think that the in-class hackerrank exercises were really helpful. They helped to reinforce the concepts that we learned in class during that lecture and previous ones, and they were also great preparation for the exam.

What’s the most significant thing you learned?

The most significant thing I learned in this course was coding in C++. I had not used C++ before taking this class, and this course teaches the intricacies and nuances of the language very thoroughly.

How many hours a week did you spend coding/debugging/testing for this class?

I spent between 5 and 10 hours a week coding, debugging, and testing for this class. For the earlier projects they did not take too much time, so 5 hours a week was plenty, but towards the end of the semester, the final two projects do take some more time.

How many hours a week did you spend reading/studying for this class?

For this class, I probably spent about 1 hour reading each week and maybe 3 studying each week as we got close to the exams. If you pay attention during the lectures, do the hackerrank exercises, and remember a decent amount about Java from 314 you should not need to spend excessive amounts of time studying for this class.

How many lines of code do you think you wrote?

If I had to take a guess, across all 5 projects, it would probably be on average 400–600 lines per project, so about 2000–3000 lines.

What required tool did you not know and now find very useful?

I think the fact that we had to write our own makefiles for most of the projects was useful. I personally used the first project’s makefile, which was provided for us, as a base for the rest of my makefiles. I think this is really helpful for any project you are working on in the future.

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

I liked this concept. Even if I felt confident with the material, I may not have known everything I needed to and having the opportunity to work with other people in the second stage really helped if I did miss some concepts.

How did you feel about the cold calling, in the end?

Cold calling was not an issue for me. I think the fact that I never knew when I would be called on forced me to stay attentive and not zone out during lectures. Even if I was called on, and didn't know the answer, Professor Downing was very helpful in guiding me to it and I did not feel nervous or stressed about getting an answer wrong.