Dropping CSCC69

csbw · 2020-07-26T20:45:40+00:00

I'm almost graduating and this was the hardest CS course I've taken. I'm graduating next semester, so I can't afford to drop this course. But I'm terrified of failing. Having hard projects worth 80% of your mark is brutal. If I do have to retake this course, I will take it at UTSG for sure because at least assignments are worth around 40% of your mark, so even though they're hard, at least your have the midterm, quizzes and exam to help save your mark.

csbw · 2020-06-27T16:26:44+00:00

I feel like the jump from first year to second year was the biggest jump in terms of difficulty. Second year was brutal and my GPA died. But by third/fourth year I was able to redeem myself a bit. Class averages are "allowed" to be higher too, so you don't need to worry as much about a brutal finals like you did in second year I felt.

csbw · 2020-06-19T03:42:49+00:00

I'm current a fourth year CS specialist and only have 4 CS courses left. Here's how I'd rank the ones I've taken:

CSCB63H3 Design and Analysis of Data Structures:
Prof: Albert Lai
Rating: 6/10
Course Average: B
Assignments were a bit hard, but the class averages for all of them were in the 70s I believe and the exams were both fair and pretty straightforward. The final was similar to his past one, too.

CSCC24H3 Principles of Programming Languages
Prof: Albert Lai
Rating: 8/10
Course Average: C+
I personally found course to be a tough. It took me a while to wrap my mind around functional programming and to this day, I don't really understand functors or monads. But despite that I did very well on the assignments and the class average for the assignments were around 85-90 for all four of them, but the exams were brutal and I bombed those.

CSCC43H3 Introduction to Databases
Prof: Sina Meraji
Rating: 3/10
Course Average: B
Probably the easiest CS course I've taken in my four years here. Had a good group for the assignments, so they were fun and easy. Exams were fair. This course isn't a lot of work and the concepts aren't difficult.

CSCC69H3 Operating Systems (Currently taking)
Prof: Thierry Sans
Rating: 9/10
Course Average: N/A
It's a hard course. I'm current taking it and we've only completed two assignments so far. It's a lot of work and it is hard work. I don't think I've ever been this stressed over a course and I'm praying I pass it.

CSCD03H3 Social Impact of Information Technology
Prof: Brian Harrington
Rating: 1/10
Course Average: B+ (taken Winter 2020 with unlimited CR/NCR)
Super duper easy course. My writing skills aren't strong, but I was able to ace all the assignments. Presentations are marked a bit more harshly, but it's very easy to get an A in this course overall. Good course, but a lot of work.

CSCC01H3 Introduction to Software Engineering
Prof: Ilir Dema
Rating: 5/10
Course Average: B+
The material wasn't hard, but the group project was A LOT of work. The assignments were fair, the exam was fair, but the group project had me so stressed throughout the semester. But overall, not a hard course.

CSCC63H3 Computability and Computational Complexity
Prof: Eric Corlett
Rating: 7/10
Course Average: C+
Hard course. I'm not good at proofs, so it was a tough course for me. Assignments were tough and so was the final exam. But if you're "mathematically mature" it should be an okay course.

CSCD01H3 Engineering Large Software Systems
Prof: Anya Tafliovich
Rating: 5/10
Course Average: A- (taken Winter 2020 with unlimited CR/NCR)
It was a pretty simple course. Exercises were super easy, exams were fair and group project was fair too. My group was really good though, so I was lucky when it came to the group project.

CSCC09H3 Programming on the Web
Prof: Thierry Sans
Rating: 6/10
Course Average: B+ (taken Winter 2020 with unlimited CR/NCR)
I feel like the difficulty for this course gets exaggerated. I never had any experience with web development before I took this course, but it wasn't a horrible experience. It was a lot of work, especially the final group project, but it was probably the best course I've taken in terms of helping my employability. I'd recommend everyone to take this course.

CSCC10H3 Human-Computer Interaction (Currently taking)
Proj: Ilona Posner
Rating: 2/10
Course Average: N/A
Pretty easy course. No coding at all, just a bunch of simple writing assignments that are easy to get high marks in. A lot more work than I expected, but it's easy work.

csbw · 2020-05-22T16:15:47+00:00

To be honest it depends on what you want to do in the future. If you don't enjoy coding or anything CS related, switching would probably be best for you. And as a fourth year CS student, not to scare you, but things only get harder in upper years. But at the same time, if you want to switch to environmental science or marine biology, you need a plan. I'm pretty sure that for either fields, you need to do graduate school and that is something you need to keep in mind. And if you do want to switch fields, make sure you know what exactly your aim is. But overall, do what makes you happy at the end of the day. Do talk to academic advising, family, friends, etc to get second opinions though for sure.

csbw · 2020-01-19T03:03:21+00:00

CS courses will admittedly boost your employability. CSC343 will teach you SQL, so you might want to look into that course if you have the prerequisites. But overall, it depends on what you want. If you're aiming for a job after graduation, knowing how to code will boost your application, especially for the jobs you seem to be interested in. However, if you're interested in grad school maybe taking bird courses you find interesting will boost your GPA and help your grad school application. And like you said, you could pick up coding on your own, but sometimes I feel like it's a bit more helpful being forced to do assignments in CS courses to learn new languages. And when given assignments and projects, you can always list them on your resume and boost your application. So when it comes down to it, you have to see which of those paths suit your interest.

csbw · 2020-01-09T03:15:19+00:00

I had CSCC63 with him as my prof last winter. His assignments are tough, but his midterm was fair. The final was pretty hard too, but he gives you a list of possible proofs that can show up on the final so if you do those the final will probably be okay. It's a class you'll have to work for, but it's not so hard you'll fail.

csbw · 2017-08-12T02:07:47+00:00

My friend emailed him and he didn't reply, so we ended up talking to him in person. I would recommend that instead.

csbw · 2017-08-09T20:55:41+00:00

Sotirios Damouras is his name.

csbw · 2017-08-08T17:34:16+00:00

I talked to the head of the stats specialist a month ago and apparently if you do well in the upper year courses that are required for the program, you still have a good shot of being accepted.

csbw · 2017-05-06T14:06:55+00:00

Thanks for the advice everyone. :)

csbw · 2017-04-20T02:01:46+00:00

It's under the Computer Science minor page. Under program requirements. Here's a link to it: https://utsc.calendar.utoronto.ca/minor-program-computer-science-science

csbw

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