Course Policies

Tutor Policy

Tutors for this course are available to help you figure out the sticky parts of programming. They should help you polish your debugging skills and help spot tricky situations when you're stuck on an assignment. To ensure that your time and the tutor’s time efficiently, we have drafted the following policy that you should follow while interacting with tutors:

• Tutors will not simply give you answers if you ask for them. Tutors are there to help you reason through problems. You are the one who is learning to apply your programming and debugging skills to solve problems. It is detrimental to your learning to have a tutor solve a problem for you.
• You can expect a tutor to help you for no more than 5 minutes at a time. Because of the size of the class, tutoring hours will also get very busy, especially later in the week as the deadline for each pset approaches. As a result, the tutors will try their best to help you efficiently. Be ready to explain your problem as clearly as you can, including which part of your code is not working as you'd like, and which debugging techniques you have used to help diagnose the problem already. In many cases, the tutor will be able to help by supplying a critical hint. Work with this hint, and if you get stuck again, feel free to request more help. If a tutor gives you advice that you don't understand, let them know.
• In many cases, you may have questions about fundamental course concepts which seem too abstract to address your immediate problem, but which are preventing you from seeing a simpler solution to the problem at hand. Don't be afraid to go back and review some conceptual material, and asking tutors for help with this is a great thing to do.
• Attend drop-in hours earlier in the week. They tend to be less crowded, and tutors will be able to devote more time to your concerns.

Lectures, Notebooks and Slides

If your lecturer does not cover the entire notebook and slides in class, it is the student's responsibility to go over the remaining material and bring any questions to the start of the next class. PDF slides will be provided for each lecture (linked on the Schedule), and it is expected that students will review the slides prior to class.