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Sunday, February 20, 2011

These are my problem set solutions for MIT's OpenCourseWare 6.00 Introduction to Computer Science and Programming as taught in: Fall 2008.

I posted them to GitHub as a way for me to practice using git and to make these solutions available to other students work on 6.00 Introduction to Computer Science.

Note that the problem sets and solutions are unique to each semester of the 6.00 class.  I.e., the problem set for Fall 2008 are not the same as for Fall 2010.

The full course, including videos and transcripts of lectures, reading assignments, problem sets, and quizes can be found at:

<http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-00-introduction-to-computer-science-and-programming-fall-2008/>


MIT's OpenCourseWare 6.00 Introduction to Computer Science and Programming as taught in: Fall 2008

2012-02-05: This course is great.  I learned a good deal from the course and I am very proud of the work I did.

I was shocked by how effective an open courseware class could be.  The lectures are interesting and engaging.  They are at times complex.  I watched several of them multiple times.  But combined with the reading materials, the assignments, and the great online resources I learned how to program and more importantly how to think about programming.

The assignments were masterful.  Each one stretched my programming skills and left me excited by what I had accomplished.  Several of the assignments were so daunting that I thought I wouldn't be able to complete them.  But as I finished each section of the problem sets, the solution to the next section became apparent.  Each question and assignment built on the previous and required me to stretch and reach and learn.

Self grading is challenging.  But with this particular subject matter--programing--it was a little easier.  If the program doesn't execute and produce the expected results then you didn't complete the assignment.  If it does execute and produce the expected output--congratulations. You can quibble about the elegance and quality of the code.  (That quibbling is probable the difference between and B- and and A+ at MIT.)

The online community of other students taking the course is quite helpful.  On the few occasions I got stuck, I would review the code of other students and return to my own code. Typically, a few minutes of reviewing other people's code solutions was stimulating enough to allow me to figure out my own code. For the problems set on recursive programming I had to all but copy the code from others. I got the code working and could walk through it.  But I never understood it well enough to create it from scratch.  I think if I had a TA and weekly recitations I could have wrapped my head around recursive programming.

I was surprised by the variety of solutions other students had created.  Some students found two lines of code that accomplished what took me 10 lines.  Other times I realized that I have crafted a more elegant solution.  

I spent 13 months completing this 12-week course.  But don't be mislead or disheartened.  I didn't spend all 13 months dedicated to the course.  I was only able work on the course in fits and spurts.  For a couple of weeks at at time, I would do the readings, watch the videos, and code a few  assignments.  Then I had to pause to work on other projects, like studying for and passing the Colorado bar exam, preparing for the birth of our first daughter, and coding a separate project for parsing and creating calendars.

In addition taking this course inspired me to learn to use GIT.

Taking this course is a great experience.