| Campus: | University of Hawaii at Manoa | Course: | ICS 491 - Special Topics |
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| Department: | Information& Computer Sciences | Crn (Section): | 88039 (001) |
1. The instructor treated students with respect.
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2. The instructor demonstrated knowledge of the course content.
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3. This course challenged me intellectually.
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4. The instructor both sets high standards and helps students achieve them.
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5. The instructor was available for consultation.
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6. Considering everything, how would you rate this COURSE?
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7. The course is highly recommended if it were taught by this instructor
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8. The instructor was consistently well-prepared and organized for class
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9. The instructor seems to enjoy teaching
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10. The instructor was enthusiastic about the course material
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11. Which aspects of the course were most valuable? |
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I think the course focusing on practical implementations (in a more competitive/interview setting) is very important to get an idea of the types of problems that exist, as well as the different ways
algorithms can be used to answer different questions. Specifically, if someone were to take this class because they wanted to do the ICPC or practice for interview questions, then I think this is
the only class that could possibly do that.
slides, not given answers to weekly problems,
textbook
Weekly mini tests
Having a mini contest on the lecture material from the previous week was extremely valuable in applying what we just learned.
Being able to redo problems on the mini contest every week was also extremely helpful in trying to complete problems you were not able to solve or finish during class.
Exposure to various programming problems
and the experience gained from solving
them
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12. Which aspects of the course were least valuable? |
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I don't think there were any necessarily "least valuable" pieces of the course, though the weakest points are also its strongest. We get to explore the large amount of algorithms out there, but
there's never enough time to focus specifically on one algorithm. While it is, in a sense, very great that we can explore the majority and practice and get quizzed on them, it has the same faults
as ICS 311: it's very unlikely that you will remember them for long and it also becomes very difficult to learn.
structure of grading,
Fast lectures
N/a
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13. What advice would you give to students, who might be taking this course in the future? |
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You should take this class knowing it will probably be harder than any class you have taken in the semester. While you don't need to memorize much- in fact, it is probably better you don't
memorize anything (except for what algorithms you are going to be quizzed on, their properties, etc. but not solutions). The only way to get a good grade in this course is to practice a lot. If you
are a full time student taking courses that are probably going to be time consuming (ICS 451, ICS 361, ...) then I would recommend reconsidering taking this course. At first, it's not so bad to
practice every day or starting to practice a few days before the quiz, but eventually as harder problems come up, it takes a lot longer to solve practice problems and gain the ability to intuitively
understand what direction to take when solving problems.
This experience is anecdotal, some people may be able to handle the load, but for me- personally, it was very difficult to balance this course with my others. I ended up having to make a
decision: is the reason why I am taking this course being met, and is it worth potentially failing?
This is not a course in which you can sit idly in and pass.
self directed studies are paramount,
Make time
Expect to study a lot and work extremely hard in this class. You should also review your data structures and algorithms BEFORE taking this class.
Practice
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14. Other comments: |
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I think it would have been better to have this course split into two semesters. To my understanding, this course is meant to be in preparation for the ICPC and the side benefit is that it becomes
great programming challenge practice for companies. I feel that this course suffers the same fault as ICS 311 where we get to cover everything in one semester- but nobody remembers much
after a couple semesters because it was too much cramming, not a lot of revisiting and contextualizing the information. For a lot of the algorithms we learned, we sort of skimmed by them briefly
before talking about larger topics as well. Similarly, I think this class should have two parts to it just so we have more time to practice and understand indepth everything that we cover, so that
not only will we be able to remember what we learned after the semester is over, but we are more prepared for either the ICPC or any interview we get. This is especially beneficial for the more
advanced concepts such as dynamic programming and graphing algorithms.
while I enjoy the challenge of the course and the
problems, the time allocation for the quantity of
problems is difficult to fill
Great course, I think that competition's
could be a good exersize during 311 labs. I
would make it mandatory with a small
minimum number of problems completed
to get full credit, and extra credit for those
who do better.
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