*Covid Version*

I didn't take PIC 10A before. Instead, I took CS31. Though CS31 is harder than PIC 10A, there are some materials not covered by CS31 but taught in PIC 10A. Then professor Chu would assume that everyone in the class already knows about them.

The projects are highly related to her class materials, which made them easier. There were 2 projects harder than I thought, but going to her and TA's office hours really helped a lot.

The midterm and final were 24h format. You are required to answer multiple-choice questions, short coding questions, and a longer coding question. The tests were designed for 2-3 hours.

This was the most positive experience I've ever had in a programming class. Granted, that's not hard to achieve given the atrocity that is Michael Lindstrom. This class was a great balance between learning really cool concepts and rigor. When the course ended, I felt very confident in my programming abilities. I'm writing this review a year after I took this course and I'm still surprised by how much of the material I retained. I can have a substantive conversation with my CS peers about inheritance, polymorphism, and algorithms/data structures 101. Unlike Lindstrom, Chu actually spends time letting the concepts sink in. I literally cannot tell you what I learned in PIC 10A, but can go on an on about PIC 10B.

Grading Scheme:
40% Homework
30% Quizzes
9% Midterm
20% Final
1% Course Evaluation

Personally I didn't watch lecture because the professor read off of the slides. I also didn't feel a need to attend discussion. The slides were concise but explained concepts pretty well. The homework assignments were pretty fair and took around 6 hours a week on average. My advice: Start early on the homework in case you run into problems. The professor lacked clarity and did not specify everything she wanted in each homework spec which resulted in a lot of students getting points docked off on the first few homework assignments. Consequently, many students complained and got some of these points back, and future homework assignments were graded more fairly. The timed quizzes were super difficult and theoretical at first, but the professor listened to feedback and made the quizzes more doable (as long as you looked over the slides). The midterm and final were 24 hours and were doable as well.

Professor Chu doesn't deserve the lower rating in this class. We literally got to use a compiler on tests. Material is taught clearly albeit rather slowly. Discussions are entirely unnecessary. Professor Chu also listens to students concerns. Grading scheme is very generous with dropping 2 quizzes. Quizzes and
HW lagged behind lecture so I watched lectures later. If you did well in AP CSA and PIC 10A this class is a breeze.

Personally the tests were hard and annoying. I'd had 5+ years of programming experience at this point and had taken PIC 10A and STILL got a 50% on the midterm... I studied and did the homework too. I don't know I do know I am salty about it but I feel like it's valid if you know the material to be frustrated that the class doesn't accurately determine that. A lot of minute things can be looked up online while coding and are completely unnecessary to know by heart.

Disclaimer: I did not take PIC 10A at UCLA and transferred. No major complaints about Professor Chu. She had a bit of an accent and I was a bit confused as a result in the beginning but was no problem in the long run. She was super accommodating and I felt that she taught pretty well. I messed up on the final which is the reason why I got an A- instead of an A but it you have good understanding of the material, you should be good to go. I didn't attend lectures and TA sections midway in the quarter because I had other obligations which made this class an uphill battle for the final 6 weeks but still definitely doable. There weren't too many new topics in PIC 10B surprisingly.

[spring 2020 covid online quarter] For me, I didn't take PIC 10A so I had to find my footing at first. One of the first topics is pointers, which are really confusing but push through it! Don't give up because it gets better and way easier after that.

Quizzes: started out too hard but Prof Chu listened to feedback from us and made them more reasonable. She emphasizes theoretical questions on these.
Homework: One assignment per week, I thought it was really reasonable and tbh I found them too easy compared to the rest of the level of the class. Tends to be a lot of code already written for us.
Midterm/Final: Did on Gradescope, was overall a very fair and good experience.

Thumbs up for adapting to online format, thumbs up for listening to students and adjusting the class, thumbs up for organized/punctual lectures and always answering our questions when something's unclear. While to some extent the class was just business, let's learn the content and do the class, the prof and TA reminded us they still saw us as humans with lives during this time and were very sensitive to that.

The real sice was the TA, Jennifer, who, besides having the most balanced mindset towards school (which I loved), just straight siced us the entire quarter. The time and effort that she and the prof put into this class for us was evident and just big thanks.

Pay attention and I don't think it would be hard to get an A.