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 How many 3rd year CS classes can I handle in one term? (at UW)
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Kam




PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 12:33 am   Post subject: How many 3rd year CS classes can I handle in one term? (at UW)

Hi. I haven't been on this forum for almost 2 years now. Back then I was at highschool preparing myself for UW Smile.

I am in my 2B term currently (exam time as well -- but I can't sleep at the moment) and I plan on taking the heavy programming classes CS 444, 452, and 488 during my 3B, 4A, and 4B term (one per term, of course) Razz. I am thinking of taking the graphics course in 3B first, as it is not as intense in terms of programming compared to compilers and real time. However, I will need to take CS341, CS350, and CS370 in my 3A term.

To prepare, I was thinking of taking as many CS courses I can take in my 3A term to minimize the workload in my 3B, 4A, and 4B terms by selecting the remaining non-CS courses I need in order to get my degree (BMath/CS). Here is what I pre-enrolled for (3A term):
- CS 341: Algorithms
- CS 350: OS
- CS 360: Intro to the Theory of Computing
- CS 370: Numerical Computation

I was thinking of adding in another CS course (CS 348: Database Management or CS349: User Interface) to the list for a total of 5 CS courses in my 3A term. Is it manageable to take all of these at the same time? Also, if you have taken any of these courses before, I would like your opinions on them. To give you guys an idea, I am comfortable taking CS240, CS241, and CS251 right now and the only course I've hated so far was CS245, which was complete BS imo.
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Tony




PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 1:04 am   Post subject: RE:How many 3rd year CS classes can I handle in one term? (at UW)

This seems like an excessive amount of CS for a single term. Keep in mind that 350 will typically be new material and can involve significant implementation work (could really depend on who's in your group).

On the other hand, 360 and 348 involve almost no implementation work -- they wouldn't really get in the way of CS4xx.
Latest from compsci.ca/blog: Tony's programming blog. DWITE - a programming contest.
Kam




PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 5:17 pm   Post subject: RE:How many 3rd year CS classes can I handle in one term? (at UW)

Hi Tony, can you give me an idea of what CS 360 is like? When you say that 350 will be new material, isn't that true for any other CS course?
Tony




PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 5:25 pm   Post subject: RE:How many 3rd year CS classes can I handle in one term? (at UW)

360 - state machines, DFS/NFS/regular-expressions, Turing Machines, a lot of proofs.

350 - not necessary true. Depending on how much (and what kind!) of programming you do on your own and during co-op, you might already be familiar with some of the material. In specific, if you ever wrote a line of SQL before, you are well ahead in 348. I found that 350 was one of the first courses to introduce a significant amount of new material.
Latest from compsci.ca/blog: Tony's programming blog. DWITE - a programming contest.
Brightguy




PostPosted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 1:32 am   Post subject: Re: How many 3rd year CS classes can I handle in one term? (at UW)

I took CS 341 and 365 in my 3B term, along with two other 300-level and a 400-level math course. That's probably about a similar level of difficulty. So it's possible to survive; it's just not very pleasant. Actually, my next term was even busier with CS 348, a 300-level and two 400-level math courses.

As far as opinions: CS 341 and 365 were very enjoyable. They're both mathematically-oriented. CS 348 wasn't as interesting, but was useful, although I already had some previous SQL experience. (Keep in mind everyone has different interests. Although I never took CS 245, I took the PMATH versions and I've TA'd it, so I wouldn't know what you mean by complete BS. Laughing)
Kam




PostPosted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 1:34 pm   Post subject: RE:How many 3rd year CS classes can I handle in one term? (at UW)

I've heard that 365 was the advanced version of 360. Was it just the course that made it enjoyable or did the prof help as well?

I wasn't really motivated in 245 because my prof didn't seem like he wanted to teach that course (for ex. in the previous term for 245, there were a total of 9 assignments, but we were only given 5 assignments that term, two of which came up at the last two weeks of class. It also seemed like he'd send his grad student in his place whenever he didn't feel like going to class).

How do you guys feel about STAT231? I've heard so many bad things about this course that I don't want to ever take it.

Also, ever taken any CO course beyond MATH239? I'm liking the graph theory in that course so I'm thinking of taking some 300 level CO classes to fill my math requirements.
Brightguy




PostPosted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 11:23 am   Post subject: Re: RE:How many 3rd year CS classes can I handle in one term? (at UW)

Kam @ Thu Apr 12, 2012 1:34 pm wrote:
I've heard that 365 was the advanced version of 360. Was it just the course that made it enjoyable or did the prof help as well?

Yeah, 365 has some complexity theory as well. The course itself was enjoyable, although the prof was good too. Getting a bad prof can be a drag, but most profs aren't too bad.

Kam @ Thu Apr 12, 2012 1:34 pm wrote:
How do you guys feel about STAT231? I've heard so many bad things about this course that I don't want to ever take it.

My cheeky comment after it was that statisticians aren't actually mathematicians because they are too interested in the real world. It wasn't as interesting as some courses, but useful for understanding statistics as it is actually applied.

Kam @ Thu Apr 12, 2012 1:34 pm wrote:
Also, ever taken any CO course beyond MATH239? I'm liking the graph theory in that course so I'm thinking of taking some 300 level CO classes to fill my math requirements.

350/352 (were replaced by 250), 380 (audit), 480, 487, 602, 681 and there are still others I'd like to take if I ever get a chance. I'm not as interested in the optimization part but some parts of CO are quite interesting.
Kam




PostPosted: Sat Dec 29, 2012 12:04 am   Post subject: Re: How many 3rd year CS classes can I handle in one term? (at UW)

Hi.

Just an update to those that will be or are facing a similar situation.

I've just finished the term taking 4 CS courses and one elective: CS350 (OS), CS341 (Algorithms), CS360 (Theory of Computing), CS348 (Intro to Databases), ECON201 (Microecon). It was a heavy workload term. All of the courses except for ECON201 required me to hand in assignments.

Before the first midterm, the assignments were light. Except for the CS341 assignments. Those usually take me more than two days of thinking and rough sketching until i finally type my answers (and all of the CS341 assignments were brutally long).

For the midterms, they were fair as long as you go over your notes the day before (this is under the assumption you attempted every question for all assignments given). Just be careful of the CS341 midterm. That one you actually need to study and practice for. The average for the midterm near 50% so the prof removed 10 marks from the total to boost up the average.

Hell went loose after the midterm, however.

CS350 had three assignments in total, one before the midterm, and two after the midterm. The last two you can do in groups and I recommend you do, because those assignments were the shit... My group met for almost every weekend and most of the week when it was due and we barely managed to complete everything. On top of that, you have the regular work load coming in from CS348, CS360, as well as the long bi-weekly CS341 assignments. I'm glad ECON201 didn't give me any work to do.

Marks were not a concern to me. By that, I mean that I do care about getting a good grade, but not so much attempting to get the highest possible. During the last few weeks of classes, I actually skipped two CS341 assignments, and one CS360 assignment.

The finals were not terrible though. Although I was worried whether or not I would pass CS341, I actually did better than I thought I would do.

If you do want to do extremely well in those courses, be prepared to work your ass off for the last two months.

End results:
CS350 - 85
CS341 - 70
CS360 - 56
CS348 - 80
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Tony




PostPosted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 3:42 am   Post subject: RE:How many 3rd year CS classes can I handle in one term? (at UW)

Sounds like 350 switched up the format. The way I remember it, is that assignments would build on top of each other, so if your group slacks off on one assignment, then you'd either have to play catchup or continue on with all the following assignments missing a feature (plausible strategy, but you are losing more marks than just that initial assignment).

348 is... a very mixed experience. If you happened to use any SQL during coop, the class is boringly easy. For the bulk of the class that has not, it's a new paradigm to think about problems, which is often a challenge if you don't think of it as such.
Latest from compsci.ca/blog: Tony's programming blog. DWITE - a programming contest.
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