What advice
would you give to a student beginning this course about how to design a
function. And how to prepare for this course?
First
of all, I would like to suggest students to make sure that you are familiar
with the basic codes and function before you start to design a function in a
project. Always go to class and keep trying to type codes by your own and play
with them. So probably you could lay a solid foundation for designing
functions. Secondly, beginners should not overcomplicate things, and go step by
step. You may try to draw flowcharts to help you to construct functions,
because sometimes you have to use codes that you studied couple of months ago,
so this would be really beneficial. In the end, you can try your best to use
all of your resources, including your TAs, friends, previous notes, and
Internet, but never except people to do the work for you though.
To
prepare for this course, you have to have a logical mind and some imagination.
Even so, you still have to go to class, and focus on the notes after class, and
try to practice codes before quiz and tests. The tests are no as easy as quiz,
you have to integrate theory with practice to overcome them. For the projects,
you have to think deeply to reach high grades. Also, you should never procrastinate,
and never leave the project in the end. When you get a project, just look it
over and start it right way, so you would have time to use available resources
to solve the problem. In conclusion, this is not a difficult course, just have
confidence and be ready for everything.