<p>So I've been reading through quite a number of threads about CS 61A and I have come to the conclusion that even if one has no prior programming experience, it is indeed possible to take CS 61A. But I just heard that there is a placement quiz on recursion on the first day of class of 61A. Is this true?</p>
<p>I heard something like that, if CS 61A is bloated with people.</p>
<p>No, there should not be a quiz on the first day. That was from back when the course was such that prior programming experience was a must. Since then, the course has changed such that one can still survive and do well if he/she has never programmed before.</p>
<p>I believe that quiz is only implemented if there are many people enrolled/waiting in the class. This spring the quiz was not implemented. I’d also like to add that the class will be quite challenging without prior programming experience, unless you’re a math wiz (i’ve known someone who was extremely good at math and had no cs experience, but got an A). Most others will be able to survive.</p>
<p>what type of pre-programming experience exactly? I’m starting to learn VB… (i’m a newbie…don’t flame me to death :P)</p>
<p>There hasn’t been a CS 61A quiz in at least five years. I don’t know why the Cal CS department doesn’t update its handbooks and websites to reflect this, as countless new students ask about it every term.</p>
<p>All you need to know is recursion. Basically, if you can understand what this function does, you’re good to go:</p>
<p>
<a href=“http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/9/e/3/9e301c6d4fa94c4fc5a00e82e955a523.png[/img]”>http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/9/e/3/9e301c6d4fa94c4fc5a00e82e955a523.png
![http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/9/e/3/9e301c6d4fa94c4fc5a00e82e955a523.png[/img]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/9/e/3/9e301c6d4fa94c4fc5a00e82e955a523.png%5B/img%5D){kind=link}
</a></p>
<p>Prior knowledge of recursion is recommended for the course. So, if you’re comfortable with recursion, you should be ready. I took CS 3L before taking 61A and I don’t know whether it was the CS 3L preparation or not, but I found 61A to be a breeze (Harvey even said himself that he makes the midterms/finals easy and uses a generous grading system that, according to his words, often gives people a higher grade than their actual understanding & knowledge of the material should permit).</p>
<p>The whole “quiz” idea was started way back in the late 90s/pre-burst 2000s, when everybody and their dog was signing up for CS. Since class sizes have settled down since then, to my knowledge they’ve never had a quiz. That being said, you should still know what recursion is before you enter the class or you will be at a disadvantage. If you have absolutely no programming experience, and feel like you need a semester to catch up, take CS3. It’s basically the first 1/2 of the CS61A semester, so those who have taken it start the course well ahead of the rest. It is a semester-long course though, so it really boils down to your own comfort level with programming.</p>
<p>CS 3L covers pretty much everything up to the first midterm in CS 61A (with the exception of orders of growth), which is like 1/3 of the class (and nothing really in-depth compared to other stuff you’ll cover past the first midterm). So, you can imagine that CS 3L is a pretty easy class, and it is (the grading scale is INCREDIBLY lenient as well). You’re pretty much assured at least a B. I’d recommend taking it only if you have absolutely no programming experience and are unsure if you’d be able to pick up on the material quickly (you can just look at the webcasts for 61A online to get a feel for the class). I have to say, though CS 3L prepared me for 61A and got me well versed in Scheme, it has made me 1 semester behind a decent chunk of my peers. It is something to take into consideration (it’s not like I’m not going to be on track to graduate or anything, of course).</p>
<p>cs61a is easy as hell. I ********ted all my homework, barely studied for midterms and for a moment was #1 in the class (and for a long month #2). ALSO I had no prior programming experience and came to Cal thinking I’d be a classics or linguistics major LOL</p>
<p>mofmog: your comment is a huge relief for me. thanks :)</p>
<p>*** mofmog? you must be a genius or lying…i’ll assume genius.</p>
<p>Basically, if you know what you’re doing, it’s nearly impossible to get below an A-. If you know what you’re doing and you’re not lazy it’s nearly impossible to get below an A. If you know what you’re doing and you’re not lazy and nothing catastrophic happens you’ll get an A+. Harvey is an easy grader and the tests, as mentioned above, aren’t meant to be hard. They don’t require great insight and creativity at all. In fact, most of the points lost by ANYONE is either because they never understood the concept (which can EASILY be rectified by simply going to office hours/attempting to do your homework seriously/reading the textbook) or because they made a small error, which can be fixed by testing everything without prejudice. </p>
<p>Small bit of advice: on the tests, check to make sure the program works as you think it should work by stepping through the answers. For example, if you wrote:</p>
<p>(define (factorial a)
(if (= a 0)
1
(* a (factorial (- a 1)))))</p>
<p>(factorial 4)</p>
<p>you should think</p>
<p>“4 isn’t 0 so go to the next clause… ok, you multiply four by (factorial 3) so that’s 4<em>3</em>2<em>1</em>1 and that’s 4! so my definition is correct”</p>
<p>Then you test for all edge cases which are cases that deviate from the norm of what usually happens. In this case, the edge case (or base case) is when a = 0.</p>
<p>I got an A+ in 61A as well, and I have to agree with mofmog. I took CS 3L in the Fall and I found its midterms to be significantly more difficult than those of CS 61A (of course, CS 3L has a very lenient grading scale which makes up for the difficulty of the midterms). Just look at practice midterms and you’ll see how straight-forward and simple the midterms are made to be (I think 61A is one of the few classes where it’s easy and very doable to get 100% on the midterms). Homework is graded so leniently that you get full credit for just trying (and my friend just “BS’s” the “trying” and still gets full-credit) and projects are rather small and can be done in a matter of hours. There are also 2 bonus points at the end of the semester for completing surveys/evaluations.</p>
<p>I do not know if I feel this way because I took CS 3L the semester before, or as mofmog indicates, the class is itself just very easy.</p>