Computer Science in Berkeley
As one of the most popular courses in U.C. Berkeley. Many of us taking this stressful course. This course mainly focuses on data structure and algorithm on the data structure. The way to learn them is do it in mind and hand. Do the programming every day to implement some kinds of functions like graph-search algorithm, shortest-path algorithm or sorting algorithm. Except these, we have three projects need to do, none of them is an easy task, but the sense of achievement after the struggling is also strong!
Everyday Lab
Every weekday, the cs61b programmer will do a task, although the instructor always pushed us to finish them during the lab time, the most cases they would be finished after the lab, just like the homework. I believe these tasks are particularly helpful for us to learn this course, thought data structure is a much more theoretical course we still must do the programming by hands to make sure everybody understands how the algorithm works and how to implement them.
Three Project
We have three projects, the difficulties of them were easy, very hard and hard, respectively. Though they were very challenging, I believe one of the most important things about computer science. Comparing with the everyday task, much more code you need to finish. How to organize a large scale of codes, this is an essential skill. I think these projects really practised our ability.
Four Exams
During the summer session, cs61b has three mid-term exams and one final exam, four of them distribute in the only two months. When I talked about this with my roommate, he said it was crazy. Since we already had three projects, plus these four exams, in such a short time, it really looked like a sandwich. The good news was that the different exam would mainly cover the disjoint different part of the course. These four parts were also kinds of independent with each other. This arrangement also helped us with organizing the study.
Overall, after this experience, I believe I will not choose ISTD as my major. The most valuable thing, I experience the difficulty but also the beauty of the computer science.
