COM SCI 1
Freshman Computer Science Seminar
Description: Seminar, one hour; discussion, one hour. Introduction to department resources and principal topics and key ideas in computer science and computer engineering. Assignments given to bolster independent study and writing skills. Letter grading.
Units: 0.0
Units: 0.0
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Most Helpful Review
CS1 is a mandatory 1-unit seminar for all CS majors...it is the most pointless class ever! Professor Cong didn't even do anything except introduce the guest speakers each week. We had to take quizzes on what was covered in the lectures and they were so specific that we basically had to memorize everything from the presentation to do well on the quiz. Hardly any of the presentations were interesting and everyone was always falling asleep. This class was one of the reasons I decided to switch my major from CS to Aerospace because it was such a waste of time and too much work for a 1-unit class. I told them everything I just said and more in our final essay and I know I'm not the only one who did.
CS1 is a mandatory 1-unit seminar for all CS majors...it is the most pointless class ever! Professor Cong didn't even do anything except introduce the guest speakers each week. We had to take quizzes on what was covered in the lectures and they were so specific that we basically had to memorize everything from the presentation to do well on the quiz. Hardly any of the presentations were interesting and everyone was always falling asleep. This class was one of the reasons I decided to switch my major from CS to Aerospace because it was such a waste of time and too much work for a 1-unit class. I told them everything I just said and more in our final essay and I know I'm not the only one who did.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - Every week there was a guest speaker that talked about their line of work. These talks were pretty interesting and became a motivation to wake up on Fridays. Sometimes Prof Gafni would interrupt these talks, which got kind of annoying. The homework and discussion sections sometimes strayed pretty far from the material in the actual talk, but they were still fair. Sone HWs look harder than they actually are. The quizzes are also pretty straightforward.
Fall 2020 - Every week there was a guest speaker that talked about their line of work. These talks were pretty interesting and became a motivation to wake up on Fridays. Sometimes Prof Gafni would interrupt these talks, which got kind of annoying. The homework and discussion sections sometimes strayed pretty far from the material in the actual talk, but they were still fair. Sone HWs look harder than they actually are. The quizzes are also pretty straightforward.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2016 - A typical freshman seminar for CS and CSE students. The professor introduces the guest speakers each week (10 in a quarter) and then the guest speaker talks about his or her topic of expertise. The material is interesting and gives you a broad range of topics in computer science. Grading breakdown: 60% quizzes 30% essay 10% participation Quizzes: They are usually very short 4-5 question multiple choice quizzes that you do during discussion section. TA reviews the material of the slides then you take the quiz. Technically you don't have to show up for lecture as the quiz is just based on the slides posted later in CCLE. However, do attend lecture so you actually understand the material which is useful for the essay. Lowest quiz score is dropped. Essay: It is doable and may take some time. Make sure you follow instructions correctly and pay attention to what is being asked of in the rubric and you will be fine. Participation: This is not really participation. It's called "peer review" where you are given 3 random students' essays and you give them a score and comments.
Fall 2016 - A typical freshman seminar for CS and CSE students. The professor introduces the guest speakers each week (10 in a quarter) and then the guest speaker talks about his or her topic of expertise. The material is interesting and gives you a broad range of topics in computer science. Grading breakdown: 60% quizzes 30% essay 10% participation Quizzes: They are usually very short 4-5 question multiple choice quizzes that you do during discussion section. TA reviews the material of the slides then you take the quiz. Technically you don't have to show up for lecture as the quiz is just based on the slides posted later in CCLE. However, do attend lecture so you actually understand the material which is useful for the essay. Lowest quiz score is dropped. Essay: It is doable and may take some time. Make sure you follow instructions correctly and pay attention to what is being asked of in the rubric and you will be fine. Participation: This is not really participation. It's called "peer review" where you are given 3 random students' essays and you give them a score and comments.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2023 - This class is entirely recorded and the only assignment is to turn in 4 summaries and your thoughts on 4 lectures (for a total of 8 paragraphs). You also can only take if P/NP as of 2023 so you don't need to even get a good grade on the assignment to pass the class. I would, however, still recommend going if you have time since they get professionals from a few companies (in my quarter I think they got people from google, riot games, and some cyber security company) who talk about their work and then they get professors to talk about their research. It's pretty interesting, although I do wish they had more topics that weren't just deep learning, and altogether not a bad class.
Fall 2023 - This class is entirely recorded and the only assignment is to turn in 4 summaries and your thoughts on 4 lectures (for a total of 8 paragraphs). You also can only take if P/NP as of 2023 so you don't need to even get a good grade on the assignment to pass the class. I would, however, still recommend going if you have time since they get professionals from a few companies (in my quarter I think they got people from google, riot games, and some cyber security company) who talk about their work and then they get professors to talk about their research. It's pretty interesting, although I do wish they had more topics that weren't just deep learning, and altogether not a bad class.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - In my opinion, this class is completely worthless and a waste of time. It is a seminar where a different professor from the computer science department comes in every week to talk about a particular subject field/research interest. The lectures are pretty interesting usually, but the weekly quizzing and essay writing at the end of the quarter just make you hate the class. My essay was also given a 100 within a day after the essays were due, which makes me think that it was never even actually read. This really shouldn't be a required class and should just be advertised as a weekly seminar that you can attend if you want to hear about what professors in the department are researching.
Fall 2019 - In my opinion, this class is completely worthless and a waste of time. It is a seminar where a different professor from the computer science department comes in every week to talk about a particular subject field/research interest. The lectures are pretty interesting usually, but the weekly quizzing and essay writing at the end of the quarter just make you hate the class. My essay was also given a 100 within a day after the essays were due, which makes me think that it was never even actually read. This really shouldn't be a required class and should just be advertised as a weekly seminar that you can attend if you want to hear about what professors in the department are researching.
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