6.00x, all of week 9 can be graded now and week 10 is up.

FWIW I'm nowhere near a good enough programmer to have a strong opinion on the best way to do this stuff, but I suspect that your professor's way is more common among C++/Java converts while the stuff I mentioned in my post is more common among people who started on Python or came from non-OOP languages.

What are your guys' opinions on MIT's CS 6.00 for someone completely new to programming?

Depends on your math background. If you have a solid understanding of algebra I think you would be ok. If you're 100% new to programming I would do the cs50x course on edx (you can still sign up now) and also take 6.00x side by side if it still lets you sign up.

You can still get graded for cs50x because the deadlines aren't until april. 6.00x has weekly deadlines though so if you can still sign up you won't be able to get a real grade since we're 2/3rds of the way done with the course.

I'm currently taking it, and I was almost a complete noob when I started. I'm finding it pretty challenging, but definitely doable. I feel like I've learned a ton as well.

I'm in HS currently in Alg. II. I have Alg. I mastered. Currently I have what I think is a busy schedule (lol HS) with challenging classes for my level. Started some of the course on MIT's OCW but couldn't dedicate a ton of time to it and got a bit discouraged that it wasn't coming to me instantly. I think I just need to get a perspective on it and put forth the time and effort to learn, not expectig anything to come easily.

Hope this isn't a derail but I'd loge to hear anyone else's perspective / story learning.

I would do the intro class on Udacity. That class is REALLY geared towards beginners.

Just finished exam #2 for 6.00x. Assuming no partial credit and no grade adjustments I got an 80. I'm pretty happy with that score, that exam was soul crushing.

Ugh, I was afraid that would be the case. How long did it take you? I either have to take it this evening where I'll have 4 hours or so, or Sunday where I'll have all day.

I think it could be done in 4 hours. It took me around 4 hours and I wasted a solid 30 minutes figuring out something that most people with a proper algebra background would have known instantly.

I had a few pain points in the exam too where I had to really sit down and go through things step by step in the slowest way possible to understand and solve the problem(s) at hand.

If I were in your position I would definitely wait for Sunday just to be safe. You might finish in 2 hours but you never know.

I'm going to take it on Sunday. I want to finish up this current homework first and do a bit of studying before I dive in. I'm surprised how rusty my probability and statistics has gotten.

I really don't feel good about taking this one, to the point I'll be pleased to get a 50%. Maybe it is Python, but OO is definitely a weak spot for me. I'm going to build a smallish program from scratch to try and iron out some of the issues. Maybe a simple program that computes a roulette wheel or something like that.

It wouldn't hurt to study. I've been taking notes for each lecture since the start and didn't really study other than glance over my notes. I figured since it was open book if I got really stuck I could review some slides or lectures.

That was a really bad idea. My notes didn't cover enough.

Turns out I have more time today than I thought I would. Starting it now. Wish me luck.

I take quite a few notes as well, but I know the feeling of, 'wtf...? Why didn't I write that one down?' I'll admit that I am sort of sloppy about it this time. When I did this last year and did the DB class, I filled up a few 70-page writing pads. Of course, at that time, I really didn't know anything at all.

So strange to think that the second round is this difficult for me. Amazing how much a grading system changes everything. Before starting, I knew most of the material pretty well outside of the OO stuff but there are some surprising holes. I'm really glad I'm doing this class again. Shows how much I missed and got plain wrong last time. Also helps immensely in seeing where the holes in my current practices are and gives some insight into how to patch them. Mind that this current series of classes is more difficult and thorough than the OCW is, especially with the math stuff.

This ps8 is pretty difficult. I'm trying to do it all w/o using the online grader to lean on, which I think will be the optimal approach for these last homeworks.

I'm glad you're doing it as well. I thought you would breeze through this course and it's interesting you find some difficulty in it as well. Introduction usually conjures up hand-holding, easy, and Zero to Idiot.

WTF at this class. They say it's not a culling class, but they really want people to quit. Bring it on!

Most of my programming experience consisted of taking input from a user (via a form) and saving it to a database, then performing standard CRUD actions on that data.

That alone was enough to do a surprising amount of "real life" work coupled with just knowing basic stuff like what an if statement does.

I also never really got into hardcore OOP because the languages I use don't support them fully (at least not in a way that Python does). In JS I wrote more functional-style code than OOP style. Usually I just did basic prototype inheritance at one level to define "models" if I had to.

PHP was my first language and all I did was throw stuff together in a giant ball of half eaten cat vomit. When I used PHP originally I didn't even know what OOP was.

To top all of that off add in a poor understanding of algebra and there's no way in hell I'm going to breeze through this haha. Some things came really easy because I've been working with them for a while but almost everything has been a challenge to learn.

I learned more in the last 9 or 10 weeks than I have in like 2 years of just freelancing BS sites for random people and companies.

Finished right at about 3 hours. Assuming I got all the coding right I got 93.56 out of 96 possible.

Nice. What's your math bg and have you done any statistic / probability work or have taken classes in those areas?

Man I made some really stupid errors that cost me a lot of time today (but not grades) I think I got 82/96 and took about 3.5 hours

I have a finance degree, so I took a few statistics classes in college 7 or 8 years ago. I was surprised that it came back to me so quickly.

I also discovered that the textbook is really clutch for the exams. I was able to lift a few answers almost directly from the book which really helped.

I forgot all about the text book. I started going through it during the earlier weeks but it was so close to a 1:1 mapping of the lectures that I figured it wasn't worth going over.

Guess I should revisit it.

So you're not of the belief that project work>taking courses by orders of magnitude? There seems to be a decently big view on this forum that coursework is worthless.

Just finished the exam. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what I was doing wrong in problem 5. Came back to it after finish everything else and turns out my dumb ass formatted the answer wrong. Got it right on the 3rd submission

It depends on the project. A lot of CRUD style projects really don't challenge you as a developer once you get a basic idea of how to manipulate data.

You just make form fields, db tables and then add/edit/delete them through form actions. Once you know how to do this you can apply it to pretty much any type of data.

You could be doing this for 5 years and really not improve that much as a developer. You'll pick up some new tips and maybe even change languages a few times but the underlying task does not change.

The coursework so far has been anything but useless. I'm not sure why someone would say it's worthless. Either they are not developers or they went to some university and somehow think they are superior because they paid for their education while you're getting a taste of that for free.

Think about the typical "program idea" people have on this subforum: write a hand evaluator or something that can "solve" all or part of poker.

Right now, the class is discussing simulations and Monte Carlo, which should be enough write said evaluator. The issue is that someone with zero background will not be be aware of all the pitfalls and limitations of writing this evaluator, compounded with the fact that this person isn't likely going to know how to even discover the names of the issues, much less be able to solve them.

I would say that even after mastering everything taught in this class so far, this would not be an easy program to create. So even after 9 weeks of intensive and well-guided study, this program is still rather difficult. Consider this an acceleration and compare this to self-learning compounded with 90% guessing. Writing said evaluator would take combining the knowledge of *everything* learned so far and I really doubt that a purely learn-by-google programmer would be able to discover how to do it.

With that thought, is this stuff worthless? I think it's easy for people who already been through 4 years of college to forget how hard even the basics are to discover, much less master when you are starting out.

88/96. I have a pretty solid math background. None of the probability material was new to me. I'm slacking on pset8 mainly because it's annoying trying to understand exactly what they want the viruses to do.