Advice from Past Students

We asked the i211 students from the 6-week summer 2024 session if they had any advice for future students. Be aware some advice is tailored specifically to the summer semester, which is a particularly intense version of this course.

What would have helped you to know going in?

Advice I would give to a student taking this course next summer:

“Most Important Thing - Spend the time and practice early in the week. Spend at least 1-2 hours a day M-W practicing, watching the videos (which are very helpful). Then spend Thursday and Friday doing the Practice Sets, assignments. If you spend time practicing with the material early in the week it will give you an opportunity to go to office hours and you can ask a ton of questions, so then when you complete the projects and assignments on Thursday and Friday, you can mitigate the number of questions you may have.”

“What helped me a lot in this course was taking the time to sit down and really understand the material. It’s important to actively learn and grasp the concepts. Also, try experimenting with the code and finding new ways to solve problems. This hands-on practice can strengthen your understanding and make learning more fun.”

“stay very on top of your work in case you need help”

“My advice would be to not take this class with other classes, and be mindful of your work schedule if you have a job as well. I took this class with 1308 and a summer job, which was very hard and I basically had to say goodbye to my summer life. Students should know how much work actually goes into this class. I think this class was set up perfectly, so I can’t think of anything that should be changed. The videos were great, and even if you do run into a problem there is always people to help. I don’t think I could have changed anything because I did a LOT of studying and homework everyday.”

“This is a time-consuming class. Don’t expect this to be a breeze and make sure you dedicate a lot of time to really learn the material. I think more helper videos could be a great addition to the material.”

“My advice to a student next summer would be to do each day as it comes. Don’t stack homework days. Be ready to commit an additional hour beyond the material to make sure you actually understand what it is in a more significant degree.”

“The one piece of advice would be to not procrastinate, especially if you believe the course is easy after week 1. It is easy to fall behind and lose the flow of doing the assignments and lectures. If you follow the format of how the work is supposed to be completed, this course is not difficult to do and does not eat time outside of the week by a lot.”

“My advice is to work on the content at least for a couple hours each day. Waiting until last minute on an assignment’s due date will make you stressed out and most likely not be able to turn it in, in time. Overall, this course worked very well for me and I loved learning from this team. However, I found the last module the hardest to learn, so study and go through each step!”