*Covid Version*

I didn't take PIC 10A before. Instead, I took CS31. Though CS31 is harder than PIC 10A, there are some materials not covered by CS31 but taught in PIC 10A. Then professor Chu would assume that everyone in the class already knows about them.

The projects are highly related to her class materials, which made them easier. There were 2 projects harder than I thought, but going to her and TA's office hours really helped a lot.

The midterm and final were 24h format. You are required to answer multiple-choice questions, short coding questions, and a longer coding question. The tests were designed for 2-3 hours.

~ Covid-19 quarter ~
Challenging class but worthwhile.
Expect weekly quizzes (4-5 questions each). She gives 30 minutes to complete it and you can take it anytime from 5 PM Monday to 5 PM Tuesday.
All exams are open-note. She posts demos, lectures, and notes on CCLE.
Very helpful in office hours. TAs are also a great source to go to for homework help.
7 total homework assignments, with a week to finish each of them.
Our final was mandatory, but she gave us 24 hours to do it. Open notes and compilers allowed.

This professor is tough, and test all based on memorization from the notes. The midterm and final average 73% and 73%, and the homework are 92%.

[spring 2020 covid online quarter] For me, I didn't take PIC 10A so I had to find my footing at first. One of the first topics is pointers, which are really confusing but push through it! Don't give up because it gets better and way easier after that.

Quizzes: started out too hard but Prof Chu listened to feedback from us and made them more reasonable. She emphasizes theoretical questions on these.
Homework: One assignment per week, I thought it was really reasonable and tbh I found them too easy compared to the rest of the level of the class. Tends to be a lot of code already written for us.
Midterm/Final: Did on Gradescope, was overall a very fair and good experience.

Thumbs up for adapting to online format, thumbs up for listening to students and adjusting the class, thumbs up for organized/punctual lectures and always answering our questions when something's unclear. While to some extent the class was just business, let's learn the content and do the class, the prof and TA reminded us they still saw us as humans with lives during this time and were very sensitive to that.

The real sice was the TA, Jennifer, who, besides having the most balanced mindset towards school (which I loved), just straight siced us the entire quarter. The time and effort that she and the prof put into this class for us was evident and just big thanks.

Pay attention and I don't think it would be hard to get an A.

Chu speaks really slow. If I took this class in person, it'd be frustrating to listen to lectures. I listened to all the lectures at 2x speed, so the class being online definitely was nice. She is pretty good at teaching the material, but it's pretty much directly from the textbook so I guess you could just read the textbook instead of watching lecture. She added quizzes to the class this quarter because the class was online. The quizzes were kinda hard but it was fine as long as you studied a little before each one. The midterm and final were relatively easy. The homework/projects weren't bad either and you get 1 week to work on them, so that's nice

Personally the tests were hard and annoying. I'd had 5+ years of programming experience at this point and had taken PIC 10A and STILL got a 50% on the midterm... I studied and did the homework too. I don't know I do know I am salty about it but I feel like it's valid if you know the material to be frustrated that the class doesn't accurately determine that. A lot of minute things can be looked up online while coding and are completely unnecessary to know by heart.

Professor Chu doesn't deserve the lower rating in this class. We literally got to use a compiler on tests. Material is taught clearly albeit rather slowly. Discussions are entirely unnecessary. Professor Chu also listens to students concerns. Grading scheme is very generous with dropping 2 quizzes. Quizzes and
HW lagged behind lecture so I watched lectures later. If you did well in AP CSA and PIC 10A this class is a breeze.

Grading Scheme:
40% Homework
30% Quizzes
9% Midterm
20% Final
1% Course Evaluation

Personally I didn't watch lecture because the professor read off of the slides. I also didn't feel a need to attend discussion. The slides were concise but explained concepts pretty well. The homework assignments were pretty fair and took around 6 hours a week on average. My advice: Start early on the homework in case you run into problems. The professor lacked clarity and did not specify everything she wanted in each homework spec which resulted in a lot of students getting points docked off on the first few homework assignments. Consequently, many students complained and got some of these points back, and future homework assignments were graded more fairly. The timed quizzes were super difficult and theoretical at first, but the professor listened to feedback and made the quizzes more doable (as long as you looked over the slides). The midterm and final were 24 hours and were doable as well.

This was the most positive experience I've ever had in a programming class. Granted, that's not hard to achieve given the atrocity that is Michael Lindstrom. This class was a great balance between learning really cool concepts and rigor. When the course ended, I felt very confident in my programming abilities. I'm writing this review a year after I took this course and I'm still surprised by how much of the material I retained. I can have a substantive conversation with my CS peers about inheritance, polymorphism, and algorithms/data structures 101. Unlike Lindstrom, Chu actually spends time letting the concepts sink in. I literally cannot tell you what I learned in PIC 10A, but can go on an on about PIC 10B.

This course was very organized, with 8 weekly homework, one midterm and one final. Professor Chu was awesome! She always stopped to ask anyone if they had questions and was extremely helpful and friendly during office hours.

But don't let the reviews fool you. This class was NOT a low-hanging fruit. I felt this course was rather difficult for an intro class. I managed to get an A only because I had programming experience in high school and had to study really hard for it..