COMPTNG 10A
Introduction to Programming
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, two hours; laboratory, eight hours. No prior programming experience assumed. Basic principles of programming, using C++; algorithmic, procedural problem solving; program design and development; basic data types, control structures and functions; functional arrays and pointers; introduction to classes for programmer-defined data types. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
3 of 5
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - You can always trust professor Lin! He is one of the best professor I've ever met, with relatively quite light workload, very easy exams, proper way of grading, and very helpful lecture and slides. This is basically a tip for those who wish to take Alex Lin's class~ - EXAM: Two midterms and one final are all multiple choice, which are very very easy. In fact, you don't even have to go to the lecture. Studying for one day or two before the exam can make sure you get 90+. Midterms have about 40 questions each and Final has 80, all are very fundemantal question testing your knowledge about very very basic ideas of C++ programming. - GRADING: This is the best part. 8 Homework and 3 Exams weigh the same, contribute 12.5% each. Professor Lin will take the TOP 8 out of your 11 assignments. So you can even possibly skip the final, just like I did, or if you are very busy during a specific midterm week, you can skip that midterm without affecting your grade! Basically if you study for the material for a couple of hours every week, you can get 100 in every HW which means your final grade can even be 100, without taking any exams! - HOMEWORK: All 8 HWs are very easy to finish. If you spend a couple of hours every week, you can easily finish the HW within a short period of time and get 100 on that. For difficult HWs (1-2 out of all 8), Professor Lin will give hints which make the assignment much much easier. Generally, getting 100 on evey HW assignment is HIGHLY POSSIBLE for EVERYONE! - LECTURE: Professor Lin delivered the lecture very effectively and effciently, and you can definitely learn about C++ programming in his class. If you don't want to or cannot go to his class, his lecture slides can help you out as well! - DISCUSSION: No need to go. My TA is not that professional and cannot speak clearly, so I only went to the discussion for once. Not counted in final grade. - Overall, if you want an EASY A in this class, take professor Lin. Then you can spend the least time to get the best grade.
Winter 2021 - You can always trust professor Lin! He is one of the best professor I've ever met, with relatively quite light workload, very easy exams, proper way of grading, and very helpful lecture and slides. This is basically a tip for those who wish to take Alex Lin's class~ - EXAM: Two midterms and one final are all multiple choice, which are very very easy. In fact, you don't even have to go to the lecture. Studying for one day or two before the exam can make sure you get 90+. Midterms have about 40 questions each and Final has 80, all are very fundemantal question testing your knowledge about very very basic ideas of C++ programming. - GRADING: This is the best part. 8 Homework and 3 Exams weigh the same, contribute 12.5% each. Professor Lin will take the TOP 8 out of your 11 assignments. So you can even possibly skip the final, just like I did, or if you are very busy during a specific midterm week, you can skip that midterm without affecting your grade! Basically if you study for the material for a couple of hours every week, you can get 100 in every HW which means your final grade can even be 100, without taking any exams! - HOMEWORK: All 8 HWs are very easy to finish. If you spend a couple of hours every week, you can easily finish the HW within a short period of time and get 100 on that. For difficult HWs (1-2 out of all 8), Professor Lin will give hints which make the assignment much much easier. Generally, getting 100 on evey HW assignment is HIGHLY POSSIBLE for EVERYONE! - LECTURE: Professor Lin delivered the lecture very effectively and effciently, and you can definitely learn about C++ programming in his class. If you don't want to or cannot go to his class, his lecture slides can help you out as well! - DISCUSSION: No need to go. My TA is not that professional and cannot speak clearly, so I only went to the discussion for once. Not counted in final grade. - Overall, if you want an EASY A in this class, take professor Lin. Then you can spend the least time to get the best grade.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - Cannot stress this enough: READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW before you take this class. TLDR: DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. Pros: 1. Pic 10B will be easier for you 2. Helpful in office hours 3. TAs are helpful usually (Swati Sharma was good) Cons: 1. Almost everything 2. Curves according to his mood/preference. You have NO idea about your predicted grade till after the final. A 60% overall can get you an A- or a C+. Depends on him entirely. 3. (!!!) Grade bracket descriptions in his syllabus are COMPLETELY inaccurate (My percentages in HW and on the final were above the "usual" B+ grade bracket. He handed me a C with no explanation) 4. Weekly HWs are on steroids. Extremely challenging after week 3 and take 16h+ 5. Exams are on steroids AND crystal meth. Extremely unnecessarily challenging 6. He is an asshole about any ways to improve your grade 7. Class pace is insanely fast. Very difficult to cope for someone with no prior C++ experience. 8. Syllabus covers MULTIPLE topics from PIC 10B. Far too complex for an intro class. 9. VERY strict about any collaboration in HWs post week 3. Uses complex algorithms to analyze all HWs and identify similarities. If you copy even 50% he WILL KNOW. Gave a "Deferred Report" to 4 students and launched an plagiarism investigation through the Dean's Office 10. Does not give a fuck about you. I submitted a HW file named "query.cpp" and got a 0 on it because he wanted it named "Query.cpp" (YES the upper case Q) 11. If you have a macbook, coding on your laptop is a huge pain. Will need to go to the PIC lab to do all your HWs and it shuts by 6pm. 12. Does not give any practice midterms or finals, so you go into the exams with no clue about the style of questions (and then get fucked lmao) Please do yourself a favor, and do not take this class. There are hundreds of easier PIC 10a classes at UCLA. You might still end up with a A- or an A but I promise you, you will hate your life by the end of it.
Fall 2019 - Cannot stress this enough: READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW before you take this class. TLDR: DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. Pros: 1. Pic 10B will be easier for you 2. Helpful in office hours 3. TAs are helpful usually (Swati Sharma was good) Cons: 1. Almost everything 2. Curves according to his mood/preference. You have NO idea about your predicted grade till after the final. A 60% overall can get you an A- or a C+. Depends on him entirely. 3. (!!!) Grade bracket descriptions in his syllabus are COMPLETELY inaccurate (My percentages in HW and on the final were above the "usual" B+ grade bracket. He handed me a C with no explanation) 4. Weekly HWs are on steroids. Extremely challenging after week 3 and take 16h+ 5. Exams are on steroids AND crystal meth. Extremely unnecessarily challenging 6. He is an asshole about any ways to improve your grade 7. Class pace is insanely fast. Very difficult to cope for someone with no prior C++ experience. 8. Syllabus covers MULTIPLE topics from PIC 10B. Far too complex for an intro class. 9. VERY strict about any collaboration in HWs post week 3. Uses complex algorithms to analyze all HWs and identify similarities. If you copy even 50% he WILL KNOW. Gave a "Deferred Report" to 4 students and launched an plagiarism investigation through the Dean's Office 10. Does not give a fuck about you. I submitted a HW file named "query.cpp" and got a 0 on it because he wanted it named "Query.cpp" (YES the upper case Q) 11. If you have a macbook, coding on your laptop is a huge pain. Will need to go to the PIC lab to do all your HWs and it shuts by 6pm. 12. Does not give any practice midterms or finals, so you go into the exams with no clue about the style of questions (and then get fucked lmao) Please do yourself a favor, and do not take this class. There are hundreds of easier PIC 10a classes at UCLA. You might still end up with a A- or an A but I promise you, you will hate your life by the end of it.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2023 - Shu Liu is amazing, and is one of my favorite professors at UCLA. Grading Scheme was 50% HW, 15% Midterm, 34% Final, 1% Evaluation Survey at the end of class. You could also drop the Midterm for the Final. HW's were very straightforward and he gives you more than enough time to do them. Exams are very similar to the practice exams. He records lectures, and is very accessible in Office Hours. If you have any coding experience prior to taking his class, you can put in very minimal effort and expect an A. I can't say enough good things about this guy, take his class.
Winter 2023 - Shu Liu is amazing, and is one of my favorite professors at UCLA. Grading Scheme was 50% HW, 15% Midterm, 34% Final, 1% Evaluation Survey at the end of class. You could also drop the Midterm for the Final. HW's were very straightforward and he gives you more than enough time to do them. Exams are very similar to the practice exams. He records lectures, and is very accessible in Office Hours. If you have any coding experience prior to taking his class, you can put in very minimal effort and expect an A. I can't say enough good things about this guy, take his class.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - This is easily the worst class I have taken at UCLA. The professor is so disorganized, and so are the TAs. I never knew what I was supposed to be doing, and the quizzes and homeworks were very unclear. He does not use slides, just codes on his computer and expects us to know what is happening. There is no structure to this class and the syllabus was not followed. I do NOT recommend taking this class with this professor.
Fall 2021 - This is easily the worst class I have taken at UCLA. The professor is so disorganized, and so are the TAs. I never knew what I was supposed to be doing, and the quizzes and homeworks were very unclear. He does not use slides, just codes on his computer and expects us to know what is happening. There is no structure to this class and the syllabus was not followed. I do NOT recommend taking this class with this professor.
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Winter 2022 - Lowkey class was a joke. The professor taught this course as if we were bill gates. His lectures were flat out useless and it did not help on the hw's. The only benefit this class had for me was being exposed to coding before actually taking cs31. His homeworks were far too lengthy and his graders graded harshly with little explanation as to why points would be taken off. He would take days to respond to emails so communication lacked. The lectures simply did not help on the hw at all He gave no preparation for the midterm, only three multiple choice questions bruh. His midterm and finals were extremely conceptual and worded in the most complicated way possible. If you do not know how to code, or you want to learn, do not take PIC bruh just do cs. Overall, Professor Murray is a nice guy but the way he taught was an L
Winter 2022 - Lowkey class was a joke. The professor taught this course as if we were bill gates. His lectures were flat out useless and it did not help on the hw's. The only benefit this class had for me was being exposed to coding before actually taking cs31. His homeworks were far too lengthy and his graders graded harshly with little explanation as to why points would be taken off. He would take days to respond to emails so communication lacked. The lectures simply did not help on the hw at all He gave no preparation for the midterm, only three multiple choice questions bruh. His midterm and finals were extremely conceptual and worded in the most complicated way possible. If you do not know how to code, or you want to learn, do not take PIC bruh just do cs. Overall, Professor Murray is a nice guy but the way he taught was an L
Most Helpful Review
Courses Taken: PIC 10A AND PIC 10B The most important thing to know about Prof. Ouellette is that he does not curve. He cares about his students and is a nice guy, but it is very difficult to get a good grade. PIC 10A: The first half of pic 10A is very easy, then it gets moderately difficult. I did well above average on all the exams, 100% on the homework assignments, ended up with a B in the class. That is because he did not curve the class, and my raw score was a B. I felt that my comprehension of the material was at an A- level, but I accepted the B and enrolled in his 10B class. PIC 10B: The hardest class I've taken at UCLA. On the first day of class, the class and waitlist were full with around 65 students. After the first midterm, only 40 of us remained in the class. The exams were very difficult. Still, Ouellette cares about his students. He's always in the PIC lab helping us with homework, and he once sat down with me for two hours to go over my past exams with me. Such a nice person, but does not give generous grades. I ended up failing PIC 10B and I know I was not the only one. I will be retaking the class with another professor. His Grading Scheme: 30% homework 15% Midterm 1, 15% Midterm 2 40% final Tip: Check the testbank, he repeats questions and format year to year. Good luck!
Courses Taken: PIC 10A AND PIC 10B The most important thing to know about Prof. Ouellette is that he does not curve. He cares about his students and is a nice guy, but it is very difficult to get a good grade. PIC 10A: The first half of pic 10A is very easy, then it gets moderately difficult. I did well above average on all the exams, 100% on the homework assignments, ended up with a B in the class. That is because he did not curve the class, and my raw score was a B. I felt that my comprehension of the material was at an A- level, but I accepted the B and enrolled in his 10B class. PIC 10B: The hardest class I've taken at UCLA. On the first day of class, the class and waitlist were full with around 65 students. After the first midterm, only 40 of us remained in the class. The exams were very difficult. Still, Ouellette cares about his students. He's always in the PIC lab helping us with homework, and he once sat down with me for two hours to go over my past exams with me. Such a nice person, but does not give generous grades. I ended up failing PIC 10B and I know I was not the only one. I will be retaking the class with another professor. His Grading Scheme: 30% homework 15% Midterm 1, 15% Midterm 2 40% final Tip: Check the testbank, he repeats questions and format year to year. Good luck!
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3 of 5
