<p>So I wanted to place out CS 1110 because I have an allergy to intro courses. I can't really seem to function in a lecture based setting and would much prefer to place out of this course. Didn't take AP CompSci, however, so now my only option is to take the placement test.</p>
<p>Background:
I've taken Computer Science at my (Indian) high school for the past two years. I scored the highest in the class and got the Computer Science prize two years running. We used the Java programming language and covered Principles of Object Oriented Programming, Data Structures like trees, linked lists, arrays, Strings, control flow, class design and even problem solving.</p>
<p>Given this background, would you say I have a fairly good grasp of the material covered by CS 1110? And would I need to study to take the placement test? If so, what should I study? Has anyone taken the test before or are there online resources for them that I may find useful?</p>
<p>Any help at all would be highly appreciated.</p>
<p>Side Note: If I do ace the test, I'd take the 1-credit CS 1132 Transition to MATLAB, which is a compulsory S/U course. Really takes the pressure off too.</p>
<p>the 1-credit S/U transition matlab might as well be 3 credits.</p>
<p>So many people put it off because of the amount of work required for it.</p>
<p>@chendrix: I wasn’t implying that the course would be easy just because it’s 1-credit. I actually assumed it would be on par with the Intro to MATLAB course in terms of difficulty. I didn’t know that people put it off, though. How hard is the course?</p>
<p>Also, I’m preparing for the placement test by borrowing a Comps AP book and studying it over the summer. Should that be enough?</p>
<p>Possibly.</p>
<p>The placement tests are usually finals of previous years. So there may be material you won’t know because it doesn’t follow the AP curriculum.</p>
<p>Unless the transition to matlab class is drastically different from transition to OOP/java,</p>
<p>it should only be worth like .5 credits. I basically finished that class before I got to school. People put it off because they’re lazy.</p>
<p>It is drastically different.</p>
<p>It took me weeks of writing my projects for Transition to Matlab.</p>
<p>By comparison, I helped my friend write his Transition to Java projects in 2 days.</p>
<p>That … sucks. Hmmm.</p>
<p>There’s an alternative course of action I was considering. There’s another Intro course, Intro to MATLAB with Robotics or CS 1114. Professor Noah Snavely, supposedly an amazingly interesting class. Not being offered this fall, though, but in the spring.</p>
<p>So what I could do is take this course in the spring and then do Transition to OOP, which seems to be a joke (Option A). Or just take the placement test and then do Transition to MATLAB in the first semester (Option B).</p>
<p>I actually strongly prefer Option A myself, but I was considering Option B because it saves me time. Which would be better? I mean, with Option A I’d be doing comp courses till sophomore year, while with Option B just finishing them off first term of freshman. Option A though is far cooler than Option B. Ah, decisions.</p>
<p>Any thoughts?</p>
<p>If you know some java and are willing to work, you can go straight into 2110 and just play catch up. </p>
<p>If you take it in the spring Graeme Bailey teaches, who I really liked (its more work in the spring though from what I hear).</p>
<p>are you a computer science major/really interested in CS? if so, do option A, otherwise just do option b and get it over with. transition class is better than taking a full blown class, even if the matlab one is really hard</p>
<p>what are you talking about chendrix, the transition to matlab course was a joke, I finished it after maybe 3 hours of watching the videos, 2-3 hours of code writing, and 2 hours of test taking. This was in fall 2008 btw.</p>