Discussion 0: Getting Started

• disc00.pdf

Attendance

Your TA will come around during discussion to check you in.

If you miss discussion for a good reason (such as sickness or a scheduling conflict), email cs61a@berkeley.edu within one week to receive attendance credit.

The Course Website

Welcome to CS 61A! We have various resources on the course site which you might find helpful as you go through the course during the semester.

Here's a summary of some of these resources. You can follow along with the navigation bar at the top of the page.

• Lecture Calendar:

  • Weekly schedule in the course, including lecture, assignment due dates, and exam times.

• Syllabus:

  • Policies for the course regarding assignments, grades, DSP and accommodations, and other parts of the course.

• Ed:

  • The course forum. Feel free to ask questions about the content or logistics here. Make sure to famaliarize yourself with the policies and guidelines for using Ed!

• Office Hours:

  • In-person office hours, where you can join other students in a larger room to work collaboratively, and join a queue to get help from course staff

• Contact:

  • Various ways you can contact course staff if you have questions, or concerns.
  • Feedback forms for the instructors, staff, or department.
  • If a student or staff member makes you feel uncomfortable at any point during the semester, that doesn't represent everyone, and that incident should be reported. The contact page has the anonymous feedback form and the EECS contact form.

• Links and Resources:

  • Request an Extension:

    • You can find more details about our extension policy in the extension form.

  • Request a Regrade:

    • Please submit a regrade request if you found any issues with how your assignment was graded.

  • Past Exams and Websites:

    • Past exams (grouped by topic or semester). Some past exams have video walkthroughs.

  • PythonTutor:

    • This allows you to run Python code and visualize the corresponding environment diagram for the execution of the code.

  • Code Editors:

    • The CS 61A web editor. You can run doctests and use the interpreter. It has support for Python, Scheme, and SQL.
    • It can visualize environment diagrams following the execution of your code for debugging. Moreover, it can visualize trees, lists, and linked lists. Any files you save here get saved on your local storage. You can also edit okpy backups, but you cannot run ok tests.

  • Department/Campus Resources:

    • These are resources, not necessarily specific to CS 61A, that many students find helpful, e.g., campus and department advising, mental health resources, basic needs resources, etc.

• Guides:

  • Tips for debugging, preparing for exams, and resources we'll provide you with during exams.

• Staff:

  • The list of everyone on course staff, with contact information.

Lost on the Moon

Your spaceship has just crashed on the light side of the moon. You were scheduled to rendezvous with a mother ship 200 miles away on the lighted surface of the moon, but the rough landing has ruined your ship and destroyed all the equipment on board except for the 15 items listed below (note: you are able to consume food/water/medicine inside your space suit).

Your crew's survival depends on reaching the mother ship, so you must choose the most critical items available for the 200-mile trip. Your task is to rank the 15 items in terms of their importance for survival. Place a number 1 by the most important item, number 2 by the second most important, and so on, through number 15, the least important.

Secrets to Success in CS 61A

CS 61A is definitely a challenge, but we all want you to learn and succeed, so here is a collection of various tips that might help in your journey:

• Find what works for you.

  • Explore different study and work strategies and find out what is most effective. If you ever want to talk with a TA about your approach, feel free to reach out to them.

• Ask questions.

  • If you encounter something you don't know or aren't sure about a concept or problem, please ask! The process of asking questions itself can be helpful in pinpointing concepts that you believe you can learn more about.
• If you're still feeling stuck, feel free to make use of the class Ed Page (our course forum for asking and answering questions).
• Office hours gives you time with the instructor or staff by themselves, and you will be able to get some (nearly) one-on-one instruction. You are not intruding; the instructors and staff are here to help as you learn.

• Do (or at least attempt seriously) all the homework and lab problems. Learn to enjoy the challenge! That's how you'll develop your skills in this class and elsewhere. Please don't use AI to do the homework—not only is this against our course policy on academic misconduct, but you will also learn less. Optional problems are extra material, but they are still in scope.

  • Feel free to ask the staff members in your lab section or come to office hours if you would like more guidance.
• Watch the videos or do the readings before lecture. They can be helpful in offering an overview of the material covered in lecture and other aspects of the class, as well as being a reference that you can refer to as you go through the course.

• When preparing for the exams, do past exam questions!

  • Lecture, lab, and discussion provide a great introduction to the material, but the main way to learn how to solve exam-level problems is to do exam-level problems. You can find past exams (and other resources) under the Resources tab of the website. Many past exams also have solutions or walkthrough videos where past staff members may walk you through the solution to the exam.