How to Get an "A" in CISC106

  1. Follow instructions. Read directions before, during, and again after you complete an assignment to be sure you are addressing the problem required, not one of your own making. A beautiful solution to a problem I didn't assign will not help your grade.  Also be careful to do all parts of a problem.
  2. Program five nights a week. Once a day, take one of the demonstration programs I wrote in class and code it yourself, compile, run, and test. What does that code demonstrate? Can you think of a better way? Email it to me, or bring it to office hours!
  3. Ask questions, answer questions. Take risks. I will not make fun of you. Participation is part of your grade, and most of that is based on your level of participation during lecture.
  4. Come to office hours frequently. Have a question prepared about an assignment, or just ask for another explanation of something we went over in class. Or tell me why you are a theater major.
  5. Do every assignment, prepare for every quiz and exam.
  6. Discuss programming with your friends who either know programming or learning it. Manytimes the interest is generated (and thus learning) as you do technical discussions with your friend in the class or elsewhere.
  7. Follow closely examples given in the book and also from Python web and write them (don't just cut and paste), execute them, modify them to adapt to new problems.

Terry Harvey and Chandra Kambhamettu