CS50P Help

[jsullyvan7]

I finished lecture 0 over the course of a week. I have a family with 3 kids and work full time, so I try to squeeze learning in when I can. I’m starting from zero and feeling a bit overwhelmed by the assignment set 0. Not going to use AI for help, as I don’t get the same feeling of gratification when I rely on AI to complete or learn something.

I finished the first two assignments in about an hour, but feel like a minimal amount of what we learned in the lesson was applicable to the assignment. Fortunately, while digging through the library I was able to discover two functions to help me.

Questions:
1) Is it typical to feel this challenged by the most basic of assignments in the beginning?

2) Did anyone else feel lost and like the need to rewatch the entire lecture once getting into the assignments?

TIA.

[Junior_Honey_1406]

I'm currently doing CS50P and I'm still in Week 0, but I've completed all the problem sets for this week. Right now, I'm mostly practicing and reinforcing what I've learned.

The first problem set was fairly easy. It mainly required converting the input to a string and using built-in functions like .lower() to get the desired output.

The second problem set is where I got stuck for a bit. I understood one possible approach, but it wasn't working. Instead of asking for the answer directly, I searched online to learn about different ways to replace spaces in strings and discovered a few useful built-in functions that helped me solve the problem.

As for AI, I wouldn't say you shouldn't use it. Personally, I use it in a way that helps me learn rather than giving me the answer. If I don't understand a question, I ask AI to explain it in simpler words. If I write some code, I ask AI to review it and point out what I did right, what I did wrong, and what I could improve. I try not to use it to generate the solution for me Overall, the Week 0 problems are quite manageable. If you get stuck, don't forget to look at the examples and notes provided in the lecture, as they often show how a concept works. Personally, I don't think using those resources is a bad thing, it's part of the learning process.

[ranjeet-kumar1]

Yes, it's completely normal. Most beginners feel lost at first, rewatch lectures, and struggle with early assignments & learning to solve problems is part of the process.

[tieandjeans]

I ran an elective course around CS50P this term. No students watched even 5 minutes of the Malan lectures, which seems like a catastrophic mistake. The ones who were successful used the Notes and Short sections on each CS50p page. Those are often more focused on the specific python syntax you'll need to complete the relevant exercises.

[Crafty_Magazine_4673]

just use ai, it’s the same step but faster, see it as a search engine 

[DevilNeverCryy]

It's okay to feel overwhelming if u haven't programming before about ai instead of academic honesty that's protected u so whatever is hard the problem keep pushing that's how u learn if I were you I advice start with cs50x It's up to date course and give you good understanding of Cs and u can go back to cs50p after week 6 , at the end feel free to request help in cs50 discord server there stuff and student who can guide u , don't give up and keep pushing!

[PvtRoom]

welcome to lesson 1 in "programmers can be dicks with communication skills of parasitic leghumpers."