- NYCU Computer Science, class of 116 (Enrolled in 2023)
- Only courses with fewer homework grades are fully listed
- Classroom assignments can be referenced on GitHub
- For any further questions, feel free to leave a comment below the article or email for inquiries
Differential Equation
Course Nunber: 515156
Type: Required
Instructor: Lu Xiao Feng
Department: College of Electrical Engineering
- Experience
- The professor teaches very well, with detailed derivations and additional concepts, and is extremely intelligent.
- Make sure you have the correct edition of the textbook; otherwise, you will end up doing the wrong assignments.
- Perhaps because it is taught in the first year’s second semester, quizzes are derived from homework but with altered numbers.
- Midterms are much harder than quizzes but also include similar types of questions that appeared in homework.
- After each chapter, homework is assigned, which is announced in advance and needs to be submitted in hard copy. There’s a significant amount of homework, including some very challenging problems.
- Dropped the course simply because I lost interest and did not want to spend time on homework.
- Later learned about the overall grading adjustments and grade distribution; the professor is quite lenient.
- Grading
- Mid (30%), Final (40%), HW (15%), Quiz (15%)
- Grade Adjustment: Grades above the pass line are adjusted between 60 to 100
- Average: 78.5
- Grades
HW avg Quiz1 Quiz2 Mid Total 99 101 100 81 W
Discrete Mathematics
Course Nunber: 515502
Type: Required
Instructor: Yan Li Xing
Department: College of Computer Science
-
Experience
- Attendance is not taken in class. Many students only attend exams because the teaching pace is somewhat slow.
- Quizzes and midterms mostly consist of past exam questions, with few new questions. If you practice enough, you won’t fail.
- Slides and recommended textbook exercises are provided. If you have time after practicing past questions, you can work on these. Additionally, course recordings are available, but they can only be played at 2.5x speed, which is quite slow.
- There are no assignments; all grades are based on exams. Exam scope and times are announced beforehand, and there are no surprise quizzes.
- Exams are graded based on answers only, not the process. If you’re careless like me, be cautious to avoid mistakes.
- If the TA finds the answers on your quiz hard to understand or spots even minor wording errors, they will likely mark the entire answer wrong.
- The professor does not adjust scores at all, even if you’re just a bit short of passing, he won’t help you.
-
Grading
- Quiz (40%), Mid (30%), Final (30%)
- Grade Adjustment: None
- Average: 77
-
Grades
Quiz avg Mid Final Total 90.5 89 88 A (89)
Digital Circuit Design
Course Nunber: 515503
Type: Required
Instructor: Zhuang Ren Hui
Department: College of Computer Science
- Experience
- The professor’s teaching style is unique; didn’t attend many classes but seems there’s no roll call, and lectures are accessible on slides.
- Besides lectures, about an hour of video is recorded weekly, discussing homework and a bit of new content; rarely opened.
- Weekly homework consists of five problems related to the current week’s material; generally not too challenging.
- Quiz questions come directly from the homework; reviewing the homework before a quiz suffices.
- Midterms are slightly harder than quizzes, but if you study, they aren’t impossible, with only a few unseen topics. TAs tend to be generous with grading, so make sure to collect your papers.
- The professor provided a set of old exam questions from 2012, which can be useful for review.
- Grading
- HW (20%), Quiz (10%), Mid (35%), Final (35%)
- Grade Adjustment: Not disclosed
- Average: Not disclosed
- Grades
HW avg Quiz avg Mid Final Total 99.6 100 87 89 A+ (92)
Data Structures and Object-Oriented Programming
Course Nunber: 515506
Type: Required
Instructor: Zhan Li Wei
Department: College of Computer Science
- Experience
- The professor is quite good at teaching, does not take attendance, and the class is generally well-attended.
- There is a lab session every week, for a total of ten sessions, during which no talking or messaging is allowed, though online resources can be used, including ChatGPT.
- There are two major assignments throughout the semester, with reasonable deadlines to accommodate your schedule.
- HW1: Mid-term release of a major project on Dungeon, essentially using OOP to write a dungeon-based RPG, with results viewable on GitHub.
- HW2: A straightforward implementation assignment that requires a report explaining the code and its complexity. It is uploaded to an OJ, which checks for plagiarism.
- The midterm is quite challenging, focusing on detailed aspects of object orientation and terminology through various question types like true/false, multiple-choice, code outputs, and handwritten code.
- The final exam is much simpler, especially if you understand data structures like AVL Trees and Heaps.
- Grading
- Lab (20%), HW (10%*2), Quiz (5%*2), Mid (20%), Final (30%)
- Grade Adjustment: Overall grade +1
- Average: 74.8
- Grades
Lab avg HW1 HW2 Quiz1 Quiz2 Mid Final Total 100 108 100 69 79 68.5 95 A+ (92)
Computer Organization
Course Number: 515511
Type: Required
Instructor: Ye Zong Tai
Department: College of Computer Science
- Experience
- The professor is quite approachable, and his English is understandable. He occasionally repeats important parts in Chinese.
- Being a new professor, there are some mistakes in his slides, but these should decrease over time.
- Labs primarily involve writing a RISC-V CPU, progressing from Single Cycle to Pipeline, with only initial templates provided by the TA.
- Following the course’s pace ensures that the labs are manageable, and it significantly improves Verilog skills.
- An additional easier lab involves writing a Cache Manager.
- Plagiarism is strictly monitored, with penalties resulting in a zero score. It’s best to do your own work.
- Midterms allow electronic cheat sheets, leading to some students launching ChatGPT during the exam. The final reverted to allowing a single double-sided A4 page of notes.
- There’s a DC group for questions where both TAs and the professor are responsive.
- Sitting at the back of the class often leads to the professor asking you to answer questions or assist with the air conditioning.
- Although the average isn’t very high, about one-third of the class received an A+, making it a generally rewarding course.
- Grading
- Lab (10%*3+15%+4.5%), Mid (25%), Final (30%)
- Grade Adjustment: Overall grade +2
- Average: 71
- Grades
Lab1 Lab2 Lab3 Lab4 Lab5 Mid Final Total 110 100 100 100 100 83 89 A+ (100)
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
Course Number: 515514
Type: Elective
Instructor: Peng Wen Zhi
Department: College of Computer Science
- Experience
- The professor uses Stanford’s slides for lectures, which are straightforward to follow, so self-study is possible.
- Attendance is not mandatory; it’s a typical assignment-based course. As long as you don’t score too low on exams and assignments, there shouldn’t be any major issues.
- There are five assignments with topics including BERT, Expectimax, Q-Learning, etc., all of which have ample resources available online for learning and reference.
- One of the assignments includes a physical demo; the questions are manageable as long as the assignment code is self-written.
- Near the end of the term, there’s a lecture that requires attendance and signing in.
- The final exam allows reference materials, and some students brought a complete set of printed slides. I took past exams with notes on them.
- Grading
- HW (60%), Final (20%), Final Project (20%)
- Grade Adjustment: None
- Average: 86
- Grades
HW0 HW1 HW2 HW3 HW4 Final Project Final Total 100 100 100 100 100 85.8 94 A+ (96)
Network Planning and Management Practices
Course Number: 515605
Type: Elective
Instructor: Zeng Jian Chao
Department: College of Computer Science
- Experience
- This course is essentially CCNA, a great course that is highly informative, akin to a practical version of network fundamentals.
- The first half of each class is theoretical, taught by Chao-ge, reviewing or introducing new material not covered in network fundamentals.
- The second half involves practical labs led by IT center TAs, covering topics like STP, OSPF, AAA, etc., with assignments to practice after several labs.
- Each assignment typically requires a demo, and the questions are not too challenging; well-prepared work should suffice to answer them. The final assignment near the term end is submitted in written form.
- Experiments are primarily conducted using VMs and Cisco Packet Tracer, with some classes allowing the setup of actual switches. Near the term end, there is also a session on crimping network cables.
- The midterm is a practical exam that allows electronic notes; if you’ve been diligent with the labs, it’s generally manageable, though timing is tight.
- The final consists of a written exam and a practical exam, with the written exam being particularly tough, covering many details and not allowing open book—quite challenging, with an apparent below-average passing rate.
- The final practical exam covers the entire semester’s content, slightly harder than the midterm, requiring proficiency with various commands, and electronic files can be used as reference material.
- TAs mentioned grade adjustments, though specific details weren’t disclosed; likely not a significant boost.
- Grading
- Project (10%*4), Mid (20%), Final1 (20%), Final2 (20%)
- Adjustment: Overall grade +1
- Average: 73.1
- Grades
Project1 Project2 Project3 Project4 Mid Final1 Final2 Total 110 94 96.8 98.9 90 78 80 A+ (91)
Basic Programming
Course Number: 515612
Type: Required
Instructors: Wu Kai Qiang, Hong Rui Hong, Huang Ning Qi
Department: College of Computer Science
- Experience
- Initially planned to take it in the second year, but rumors of progressively easier exams towards the term end prompted a trial.
- The exam lasts 4 hours, with 6 problems, each worth 100 points, with 240 points required to pass.
- Although it’s a 0-credit course, grades are recorded on the transcript, and apparently, 420 points can earn an A+.
- Most problems are from UVa, and you can practice some on GPE Helper before the exam.
- If you haven’t registered for the course but pass GPE during the semester, you can add it at the end of the term, which is quite cool.
- I took the exam on 2024.05.29. It wasn’t too difficult, and the problems included:
- What is the Median?
- Unique Lines
- Glass Beads
- Prefix Expression Evaluation
- Lakes
- Tug of War
- Grading
- GPE (100%)
- Grades
GPE Total 520 A+
Cryptographic Engineering
Course Number: 535608
Type: Elective
Instructor: Xie Zhi Ren
Department: Institute of Network Engineering
- Experience
- A very rewarding course with quite a few assignments. The professor enjoys giving extra points, but all assignments must be submitted to avoid failing.
- There are 6 assignments announced before class; submitting a fully correct assignment before 8:00 AM the next morning earns an extra 3 points. After feedback about the early deadline, it was changed to 8:00 AM Dubai time.
- There are 3 critiques, which can be done in groups, involving reading a paper and writing a summary and analysis of about 2000 words. Additional points are awarded for writing labs.
- The midterm is a week-long, treated like an assignment, with varying difficulty levels, mostly from MIT’s past exams, and cool bonuses. The full mark is 150 points, and it’s generally feasible to score over 100 if you work diligently.
- For the final project, the professor provides various topics to choose from for implementation and presentation, with peer evaluation during class.
- It’s best to choose unique topics to avoid overlap, as similar topics can lead to repetitive presentations, and the professor might call for a comparative review.
- Already exceeding 100 points before including class participation, all extra points are added to the total score, as sweet as a full-sugar drink.
- Grading
- Quiz (5%*6), Critique (8%*3), Mid (16%), Final Project (20%), Class participation (10%)
- Adjustment: None
- Average: 90.9
- Grades
Quiz avg Critique Avg Mid Final Project Total 7.2 8.8 25 17.3 A+ (100)