<p>actually, i’d say computer organization is part of the meat (if you focus on systems for your CS major, which I would do if I were a CS major). but i’m not a CS major. i’m a math major who took a few CS courses for fun. i may take a couple more, but i’ll get a minor at the most. you shouldn’t need 3-4 all nighters for undergrad computer architecture projects honestly… the longest i spent on one was about 10 hours, and that was cause it was a pdf writeup, and most of that work was running the programs on computers with different ISAs (it was a benchmarking assignment).</p>
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At my college recitation sessions are extra class periods that are held by a TA instead of the professor. They are typically used to answer students’ questions, discuss homework problems or go over the material from class again.</p>
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How difficult it is to get an A depends on the class, professor, major, and whether it’s graded on a curve. My Humanities classes weren’t graded on curves, so theoretically, if everyone was an excellent writer, 20/20 students could get A’s. My science classes are mostly curved, although that doesn’t mean only a certain percent get A’s. For example, if the entire class somehow got a 96%, the whole class would have an A, except that’s never gonna happen - a handful of people get 70-80% and they get the A’s. Whether or not there’s presentations depends once again on the class, professor, and major. I bet in Business class there’s lots but not in a Chem lecture, obviously.</p>
<p>Like B@r!um said, recitations are usually taught by TA’s and go over stuff we learned in lecture, it’s more one-on-one than a massive lecture hall. I’ve never had an oral exam, and science exams are generally a combo of multiple choice/short answer/problems sets.</p>
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<p>If it was part of the meat it would never be this easy. Debugging takes us at least 10 hours, and Computer Architecture is one of the most infamous courses on campus. I’d say the CS classes in your school sounds uncommonly lax.</p>
<p>If you can get an A in an AP class then getting an A in a college course should be equally simple. (That’s true in the top 30 school I go to, not sure how it is at an elite school.)</p>
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<p>not really. for what it’s worth, my school is one of the many schools that adapted the course from cmu’s textbook/course, including the assignments, which are pretty standard. as I said, it doesn’t take 100 hours to do the projects if you know what’s up. I never said the projects are easy, but if you’re caught up in the material in the course and have half a brain, a good 10 hours of hard work will definitely get you through one of these projects.</p>
<p>most of the projects come with all the irrelevant stuff done… the test programs, the main routines, the sample output to test it against, etc. it’s up to you to write the actual meat of the project. computer science is about many things, but it’s not about spending 100 hours a week programming. it’s better this way: a) you’re spending your time doing the stuff that matters, and b) it’s easier for the TA to grade your stuff.</p>
<p>and I don’t think the CS classes here are that lax. many of the upper level classes have exam averages of around 20-30%. comp. org. exam averages are probably somewhere between 50% and 60%.</p>
<p>bottom line, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out a CS project. I find it much easier to spend 2 days writing a CS project than I find it spending that time to prepare for a day on which I have 3 math exams, plus a full day of classes and an obligation to grade other math exams as a TA</p>