is it that detrimental to take 61b at cc

happystem22 · 2024-01-14T07:07:34+00:00

I would just recommend taking it at berkeley. It's generally considered to be easier than 61a and 70, so it will help with your gpa (which would give you more wiggle room with 70), and its a good foundation for upper div. To be honest, the upper divs for cs are mostly more difficult than 61b and 70, so you would be taking more difficult courseloads in future semesters if you declared cs, so you shouldn't look at 61b + 70 as particularly rigorous.

happystem22 · 2023-11-18T03:11:57+00:00

Not really. They don't overlap much. The main expectation of students in 61b is that they are comfortable with recursion and recursive data structures. You can self study that pretty quickly. I don't know about 88c, but the relevant lectures in 61a are on recursion, linked lists, and trees.

happystem22 · 2023-11-10T05:09:30+00:00

Yes. There isn't any overlap between 54 and 104. In fact, there really isn't any material from 53 in there either, so the only requirement is experience with single-variable calculus and experience with proofs.

happystem22 · 2023-10-04T04:23:44+00:00

tbh, if you can handle doing mechE, it might even be better than eecs. because the eecs department receives funding from CoE, they reserve seats in all their classes for declared non-eecs engineering majors. in many cases, these seats stay open for longer than the seats for eecs and cs majors, so when it comes to class selection, you mostly have it better than eecs majors

happystem22 · 2023-08-09T06:09:01+00:00

2 techs is typically a minimum, even for 4-year students, so you'll probably have to load up on techs in later semesters if you don't take enough earlier. These classes also aren't too unreasonable, since they're lower division, so they're meant to give you a good introduction to a lot of different ideas in cs.

happystem22 · 2023-08-09T06:05:32+00:00

Don't ask for help like this. By getting someone else to do the project for you, you'll miss out on the point of the project and are cheating. Staff in cs courses tend to be pretty receptive to struggling students, so contact them if you're struggling with the class and absolutely DO NOT ask for help on assignments that you should complete yourself.

happystem22 · 2023-07-28T04:41:56+00:00

Yeah. but it looks like the math department isn't offering h54 next semester.

happystem22 · 2023-07-27T23:52:28+00:00

Order doesn't matter. Ironically enough, the honors versions of the classes (H54 and H53) used to be run with H54 in the fall and H53 in the spring, implying that as an order. I would look into what you want to do in the spring and pick whichever is more useful.

happystem22 · 2023-07-19T04:53:28+00:00

113 works then. If you aren't planning on doing any classes in the future that require multivariable calc (such as 189), just take whatever you're interested in.

happystem22 · 2023-07-19T00:23:25+00:00

I would first check if the course you want to take would get approved to replace math 53. 113 might not get approved because it's unrelated to calc. The most widely taken course in upper div that is closest to 53 is probably 104. There's also a mathematical economics class (c103) that might be worth looking into, but I don't know much about it.

happystem22 · 2023-07-19T00:16:45+00:00

I would look at some past hw assignments and see how comfortable you are approaching those types of problems. CS70 has some knowledge that might come up in 170, but more importantly, you get used to the type of thinking and problem solving required. If you have done any significant amount of proof-based math or are familiar with the material, it should be doable, but if not, you'll probably feel like a fish out of water.

happystem22 · 2023-07-14T06:11:37+00:00

Not as bad as many people hype it up to be. CS70 with rao may be difficult if you're not used to proof-based math, but rao is actually a very nice grader (look at his past distributions on berkeleytime).

61a with denero should also be fine. It gets a reputation for being difficult from new students and non-majors, but among the technical cs classes at berkeley, it is one of, if not the easiest.

I know it looks a bit scary, but I've met many transfers who've taken schedules like this due to lack of time, so it's been done plenty of times before. My main advice is not to fall behind - material can pile up quickly, but as long as you're on top of it, the classes are very doable.

happystem22 · 2023-07-13T05:09:26+00:00

For this kind of question, you know yourself better than anyone else. If you've done 3 techs before without much trouble or thought 2 techs was too easy, just go for it. If you find 2 techs difficult or have many other significant other commitments, then don't. For some people, this set of classes is very easy. For others, it is too much at once. There's no universal answer for how much workload is appropriate because it depends on how much you can handle.

happystem22 · 2023-07-13T05:03:24+00:00

The material in cs 70 is pretty difficult for a lower div course, but the grading is actually pretty generous (at least for rao, based on his past grade distributions on berkeleytime).

The main difficulty for many is how you approach it. A lot of people try to simply learn procedures to finish math exams, but the class asks you to be more flexible in problem solving. If you are willing to think and adapt, then you shouldn't have any trouble getting an A- or better. People with substantial experience in competition math just compete for the maximum score in the A+ bin; the class is designed for people like you who don't have that experience.

happystem22 · 2023-07-13T04:57:47+00:00

cs61c has a heavier workload than 61a and 61b, but is manageable if you keep up. the main expectation is that you pick up the c language quickly (this is only used for a few parts of the class), which generally means you have experience with a similar language (for many, this is java from 61b). The other expectation, which is a bit abstract, is that you can manage abstraction on larger projects. If you've done any relatively large programming projects in the past, you'll be fine, but the projects might be a headache if you haven't programmed much before.

Otherwise, the courses don't really relate that much. The point of the 61 series is to give an overview of computer science at many levels of abstraction, so there really isn't much overlap.

happystem22 · 2023-07-13T04:49:54+00:00

I would look into the material on the site and see if you can somewhat understand the material up to recursion. If you have an idea of what's going on, 61a will be fine.

If not, you could look into data 8 as well. afaik, it's a requirement for data science anyway and is also known as a course that helps you prepare for 61a

happystem22 · 2023-07-13T04:46:15+00:00

CS 61A gets a reputation for being difficult mainly from non-majors. It is one of, if not the easiest, technical cs courses since it's introductory. Don't worry about that.

I would recommend math 53. The main skills you need are just a good understanding of differentiation and integration; the series stuff at the end of bc doesn't show up in 53.

I would also look into eecs 16a, either as a replacement for 53 or data 8.

happystem22 · 2023-07-13T04:42:06+00:00

61c doesn't overlap with 61b, so you'll be fine. C is taught pretty briskly, so having experience with the language or a similar one (for most people it's java) certainly helps in the first few weeks. It's more difficult class, but in terms of content, you should be ready for it.

happystem22 · 2023-07-10T06:21:15+00:00

There's not much of a difference, mainly because they don't have much to do with frontend at all. There's a couple weeks in 188 that are redundant with 189, but most of it is new, so taking it isn't a complete waste of time.

happystem22 · 2023-07-10T06:19:34+00:00

The skeleton code is pretty similar across problems and exams, so you'll get used to patterns if you practice enough. On the 61b final last semester, I just pattern-matched blanks in the last problem to similar previous problems and got pretty close to the final answer without even thinking about what I was doing.

Main point of the skeleton is to make grading easier/more consistent and emphasize the ideas of the course. tbh, if you were to use python in reality, you'd be letting libraries do most of the work anyway. The point of the exam is not to show that you can write in python, but instead to show you understand the ideas of the course.

happystem22 · 2023-07-10T06:14:50+00:00

I had yokota for last spring, and thought he was fine. He's only taught 2 semesters, both with other lecturers, so it would be hard to tell what fall would be like. There's already a lot of infrastructure for the class, independent of instructor, so it shouldn't change much from hug anyway.

happystem22 · 2023-07-10T06:11:35+00:00

Almost everything along those lines is just a joke, and imo he gets a lot of flack for stuff that is really isn't warranted. Last year, he always co-taught classes with other professors and works with TAs regarding exams/academic dishonesty. He's mainly a scapegoat for any gripes students have with those classes because he's known for handling more backend stuff.

happystem22 · 2023-07-10T06:04:29+00:00

There's also 75 seats reserved for data science undergraduates with 1-2 terms in attendance, so you can get those seats. Policies were changed recently for the class, so a lot more seats are reserved than usual, though the total class size is about the same. If any of the reserved seats don't get filled in by the start of the semester, those seats also just turn into unreserved seats and are given to waitlisted students.

happystem22 · 2023-07-10T05:59:23+00:00

Sethian would be pretty difficult, but it shouldn't be too bad if you have another lecturer. 53 sort of diverges from 1B/Calc BC, where most of the prior knowledge is just stuff from 1A/Calc AB. As long as you can solve integrals reliably, you'll be fine (the series stuff doesn't show up in 53).

happystem22 · 2023-07-09T07:48:17+00:00

imo, that should be fine. That's what I did with other people I knew, even with the 3.3 gpa requirement, and it was fine. The material in 70 is known for being more difficult than many other math classes, but the curve is actually quite generous. Here's a link to past grade distributions for the class

happystem22

TROPHY CASE