<p>@berkicome: Yes, if you have a basic understanding of recursion, then you probably have enough background to do well in the course. </p>
<p>I wasn’t trying to freak people out. CS61A is actually a really cool and interesting course. Yes, it is challenging, but you certainly don’t have to be a programming guru (or anything close to one) in order to do well in it. I am just saying that I recommend SOME programming experience before taking the course. When you first start programming, it seems really weird. Once you have some experience under your belt, you can pick up on things much more quickly. Like excelblue said, when you first start programming, there is a HUGE learning curve. During this curve, you aren’t becoming an expert programmer; you are just getting comfortable with the most absolutely rudimentary CS topics. And really, that’s all you need when coming in, in order to be capable of succeeding in CS61A - a grasp of the bare fundamentals.
You should all take it. It’s such a cool course. Also, what he said about matching parentheses is not valid anymore, since it will be in Python in the future (and Python is actually used in the industry, unlike Scheme).
I know several people who only took CS3 and did fine in 61A. Not sure about CS10.</p>
<p>on average how many hours of work is needed for cs61a per week outside of class time?</p>
<p>So is there any crash course to basic programming that I can do now to prepare for 61A? Besides the actual coursework? I understand the actual concept of recursion and such but I’ve just never programmed anything.</p>
<p>An introduction to Python would likely be useful. Here are several resources that I hear are good; the only one I’ve used is the first one, which is pretty decent.</p>
<p>[Think</a> Python: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist](<a href=“http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/thinkpython.html]Think”>Think Python: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist)
[The</a> Python Tutorial — Python v2.7.2 documentation](<a href=“http://docs.python.org/tutorial/]The”>The Python Tutorial — Python 3.11.4 documentation)
[Google's</a> Python Class - Google’s Python Class - Google Code](<a href=“http://code.google.com/edu/languages/google-python-class/]Google’s”>Google の Python クラス | Python Education | Google for Developers)
[Learn</a> Python The Hard Way, 2nd Edition — Learn Python The Hard Way, 2nd Edition](<a href=“http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/]Learn”>Learn Python the Hard Way)</p>
<p>@energize
have you taken cs61a? is so how many hours of homework are there each week?</p>
<p>Weekly homework loads range between 2-40hr, typically closer to the 2hr end, depending on well you can program. If everything goes smoothly, you’ll be done within 2hr. Otherwise, you may be struggling with bugs until the due date.</p>
<p>on the website for cs61a fall, it says ap cs ab is sufficient for preparation, but it doesnt say ap cs a. if i took ap cs a and received a 4, is that good enough for getting an A in cs61a if i work for it?</p>
<p>Yes, AP CS A is more than sufficient programming experience. You will still have a significantly higher curve compared to those who have taken and done well in AP CS AB, but an A is manageable if you work at it.</p>
<p>Treat it as a 5-unit course.</p>
<p>Having taken CS3S (with mostly no prior programming experience), I’d say it was pretty good preparation for CS61A. Though honestly, that course was mainly just reading the text book and doing problems etc, on your own. So if you’re motivated enough, just reading a python textbook, doing the problems and writing code with the interpreter should be sufficient preparation. 3S wasn’t that great of a course I thought, but it did allow the concepts of recursion and basic programming (and Scheme) to sink in. I’m not sure how well CS10 manages to do that. Knowing the language used in 61A helps a lot with managing the course, since you don’t have to struggle learning the language itself in addition to the core concepts of the class.</p>
<p>This is a very good opportunity to self-study some, and just take the course. It’s not at all inconceivable.</p>