Why not just challenge CS 142? Back in 1994 I successfully challenged CS 142, 143, and 232. They did not officially offer it, but I talked to the professors and they let me. Things were a little different then - 142 and 232 were Pascal, 143 was Motorola Assembler. When I came to BYU my experience was primarily with C and Assembler on x86. But it did not matter - a few sessions with a Pascal compiler and a few sessions in the lab with the Motorola Assembler simulator got me to the point of being able to pass the tests.
So if you know how to program in some language and feel confident in your ability to learn I would recommend this approach. Saves money, saves time, allows you to get married and have your family eat without debt. Thinking in retrospect, I should have been more aggressive about class challenges. I got my feet burned trying to challenge CS 252 scoring 65% on a test where I thought I could score 90 while at the same time the CS department head said I could not challenge CS 380 because they were not going to let me graduate from the CS program like this so I decided to just take the courses. I think I was too timid then - if it were now, I would have pushed the issue harder with a particular emphasis on helping students graduate without debt while being frugal with the scholarship funds. On Mon, Aug 5, 2013 at 9:36 PM, Daniel Butler <[email protected]> wrote: > CS 142 is now in C++, some teachers are using Microsoft visual studios, and > others are using good ole text editor and g++. (At least that's what > Professor McCarthy was doing in 2011) And when I had 235 that was what they > were doing there. Really linux use is encouraged by some professors, > discouraged by others If you don't have windows you should be able to get by > in the few cases you need windows with lab computers, but its not ideal. > > When I took CS 142 (two years ago, haha, mission), the only software that > was needed was eclipse. Personally, I'm not a linux guy (OS X and Solaris > are my big unix hooks), but I believe that linux users tend to have an > alright experience at BYU. I do remember that when I took CS 124 (again, > two years ago), windows software was -absolutely- necessary to flash the TI > MSP430 chips that the class was using at the time. I considered writing a > USB driver for OS X and possibly for the linux guys, but decided it wasn't > worth it. I just ran Windows 7 in a VM. CS students can get free copies of > Windows (and Visual Studio, Office, etc) through MSDN, if I recall > correctly. > > As far as general tips, you might want to not have an xbox or whatever. I > know that I spent enough time playing minecraft to lower my gpa about a > tenth of a point. In fact, this semester I'm bringing in an old iBook that > can pretty much only run Word and play DVDs to use on days when I absolutely > need to force myself to be productive. > > A study habit that I would recommend is keeping notebooks for whatever > topics / subjects you're studying (say you're doing calc II and linear alg > at the same time, might want to just have a "math" journal) and write about > what you learn each time you go to class and study. Be specific and make > lists of what you don't know or understand. That way you always know what > you need to study first. > > And here's something I learned from good ol' Kearl. Find something you love > that isn't related to your studies. Something new. And love it and spend > time doing / studying it. He learned to love French cathedrals, if I recall > correctly, and I learned to love ice skating. That makes your college > experience valuable, like real life instead of just dry training. Find > people to hang out with that don't fit the crew you had in high skool. Join > World Series pools. Whatever, have fun. > > There ya go. > > Questions? Concerns? Shoot me an email. > RT Hatfield > > > > On 5 August 2013 20:12, Oliver Reed <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> I'm an incoming freshman, and I was wondering if any of the more >> experienced BYU students have tips or suggestions to help me (and any other >> freshman that happen to be subscribed) succeed. Study habits we should >> start, time management techniques we should practice, and activities we >> should attend could be helpful as well as any other information you can >> think of that you wish you had known on entrance. >> >> Particularly, I'm interested in the CS program. What tips and tricks do >> you have for a Linux user going to school? Specifically, for CS 142, do I >> need some way to run Windows or Windows software? >> >> Thank you for any time and effort you put in to answering my questions. >> I'm extremely excited to experience college life, and I want my first >> semesters to be the best possible experience. >> >> -Oliver Reed >> >> -------------------- >> BYU Unix Users Group >> http://uug.byu.edu/ >> >> The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their >> author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. >> ___________________________________________________________________ >> List Info (unsubscribe here): http://uug.byu.edu/mailman/listinfo/uug-list > > > > -------------------- > BYU Unix Users Group > http://uug.byu.edu/ > > The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their > author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. > ___________________________________________________________________ > List Info (unsubscribe here): http://uug.byu.edu/mailman/listinfo/uug-list > > -------------------- > BYU Unix Users Group > http://uug.byu.edu/ > > The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their > author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. > ___________________________________________________________________ > List Info (unsubscribe here): http://uug.byu.edu/mailman/listinfo/uug-list -- Sasha Pachev Fast Running Blog. http://fastrunningblog.com Run. Blog. Improve. Repeat. -------------------- BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. ___________________________________________________________________ List Info (unsubscribe here): http://uug.byu.edu/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
