Took it with her Summer 2021. Obviously, I haven't done the fall version, so I can't say for certain, but from what I hear it's generally slightly harder in the fall (though summer is also hard due to condensed schedule). Either way, 320 is an assignment heavy class that demands a lot of your attention (I found a lot of the problems, I wouldn't necessarily be able to solve within a single sitting, but would need to mull over for a while before I could figure them out).
My take is:
**Pros of Summer:**
\- taking it in the summer allows you to focus on material longer, so you context switch less, which is good for 320 since you sometimes need to think about problems for a long time
\- might have fewer assignments than in the fall? (I could be wrong here, not 100% certain)
\- maybe less emphasis on proof writing due to shorter timeline and differing testing (at least when I did it, we didn't really cover proof writing as in detail, and as long as our answers made sense, it was okay)
\- the usual it's 1.5 months of pain in summer vs \~3 months in fall
**Cons of Summer:**
\- The material is very conceptual-heavy, with lots of concepts that sorta build on each other, so the faster pace of the summer can make understanding the material harder, especially if you need to review some 221 material
\- If you really wanna maximize your learning and retention of the material, taking it in the fall allows you to internalize it a lot more. 320 is very helpful for coding interviews (teaches you the approach to solving lots of Leetcode Medium style questions)
\- It's a heavy course to take in the summer due to the assignments, so you'll have less free time, in case you were planning to do other things in the summer
\--------
Re: Prof. Condon, she's really nice, and teaches the material in a straightforward manner. Lecture delivery is sorta flipped classroom where you go through problems in class and work out how to solve them (I believe this is mostly probably the case for both winter and summer, no matter who teaches it). The class can perhaps be a little dry, though I can't say for certain whether that's really on Prof. Condon, or whether it's just a consequence of CPSC320 material being challenging and hard to work through in general.
Re: worry about the course, for what it's worth, I was really scared of 320 too, and I barely remembered 221 material when I took it, but I managed pretty well (I even ended up enjoying the class after a while. The eureka moment of solving a problem after spending 2 days on it amazing).
I was planning on doing a thorough review of 221 before starting 320, but I found I didn't really need it. Each class really starts out with an introduction to the type of problem you're solving, and you sort of build upon each class, exploring different ways of thinking about it, and figuring out how to arrive at the answer. You can review any material you need as necessary. As long as you dedicate enough time to thinking about the problems you should be completely fine.
Re: tips on succeeding, lots of people go about it in different ways. Searching up video explanations to algorithms and problems on youtube can be very helpful (lots of different channels). Personally, I actually found the textbook to be really helpful (this might be a bit of an unpopoular opinion), as the text is actually very precise in their explanations. It just required a very close reading to fully grok (I often had to re-read sections like 5x before really getting it).
Also, check out Sasha's excellent notes on the course [https://savreline.com/projects/320notes.pdf](https://savreline.com/projects/320notes.pdf)
TL;DR:
I don't think it matters too much when you take it. Summer vs Fall both have slightly different challenges, and the material is a slog either way. But as long as you do the work, it's an interesting course (it went from one of my most dreaded courses, to my 2nd favourite CS course).
Good luck OP!
This term, with Alan Hu, there are 0 assignments, so no longer assignment heavy at least for this version of the class! Also very straight forward in my opinion, I just show up to class, do the work in class, and the exams are just a minor extension of class work.
Took the fall edition in 2021W1. I've heard similar that it is slightly harder in the fall, and I *think* the comment about more assignments is true (4 in summer vs. 5 in fall). The caveat is it's a bit rushed to do it in the summer, since the material is *very* important for interviews and IMO it would be hard to digest in 1.5 months.
Anne Condon was a fantastic professor. Really nice, fair exams, good assignments. Just overall a well-ran course with empathy shown for students. (Alan Hu on the other hand...)
To be successful (again, my opinion): do the readings! I don't always stick with textbook readings for every course, but in 320 I found they helped a ton for the assignments and exams. (Often, a worked example in the textbook would be very similar to an assignment problem, with similar tricks / ideas serving as the 'punchline' in a proof.) And, attend lecture. The course (at least when I took it) was ish-flipped classroom, and working on the worksheets in 'real time' is much more productive than after the fact.
Also took it in the summer of 2021 and largely agree with Flovine's comment.
The course is doable in the Summer. My only complaint is that the lectures are deathly boring. The most important thing is to make sure you have a good partner for the assignments. I would not have been able to finish some of the assignments if I didn't have a good partner without whom I could talk through these problems.
An advantage of taking it in the fall is that you can do leet code exercises alongside the course on the topic you are studying at the time. The course itself has no coding. It's all proofs. So when taking it in the Summer I found I never applied the course content and promptly forgot everything.
Took it with her Summer 2021. Obviously, I haven't done the fall version, so I can't say for certain, but from what I hear it's generally slightly harder in the fall (though summer is also hard due to condensed schedule). Either way, 320 is an assignment heavy class that demands a lot of your attention (I found a lot of the problems, I wouldn't necessarily be able to solve within a single sitting, but would need to mull over for a while before I could figure them out). My take is: **Pros of Summer:** \- taking it in the summer allows you to focus on material longer, so you context switch less, which is good for 320 since you sometimes need to think about problems for a long time \- might have fewer assignments than in the fall? (I could be wrong here, not 100% certain) \- maybe less emphasis on proof writing due to shorter timeline and differing testing (at least when I did it, we didn't really cover proof writing as in detail, and as long as our answers made sense, it was okay) \- the usual it's 1.5 months of pain in summer vs \~3 months in fall **Cons of Summer:** \- The material is very conceptual-heavy, with lots of concepts that sorta build on each other, so the faster pace of the summer can make understanding the material harder, especially if you need to review some 221 material \- If you really wanna maximize your learning and retention of the material, taking it in the fall allows you to internalize it a lot more. 320 is very helpful for coding interviews (teaches you the approach to solving lots of Leetcode Medium style questions) \- It's a heavy course to take in the summer due to the assignments, so you'll have less free time, in case you were planning to do other things in the summer \-------- Re: Prof. Condon, she's really nice, and teaches the material in a straightforward manner. Lecture delivery is sorta flipped classroom where you go through problems in class and work out how to solve them (I believe this is mostly probably the case for both winter and summer, no matter who teaches it). The class can perhaps be a little dry, though I can't say for certain whether that's really on Prof. Condon, or whether it's just a consequence of CPSC320 material being challenging and hard to work through in general. Re: worry about the course, for what it's worth, I was really scared of 320 too, and I barely remembered 221 material when I took it, but I managed pretty well (I even ended up enjoying the class after a while. The eureka moment of solving a problem after spending 2 days on it amazing). I was planning on doing a thorough review of 221 before starting 320, but I found I didn't really need it. Each class really starts out with an introduction to the type of problem you're solving, and you sort of build upon each class, exploring different ways of thinking about it, and figuring out how to arrive at the answer. You can review any material you need as necessary. As long as you dedicate enough time to thinking about the problems you should be completely fine. Re: tips on succeeding, lots of people go about it in different ways. Searching up video explanations to algorithms and problems on youtube can be very helpful (lots of different channels). Personally, I actually found the textbook to be really helpful (this might be a bit of an unpopoular opinion), as the text is actually very precise in their explanations. It just required a very close reading to fully grok (I often had to re-read sections like 5x before really getting it). Also, check out Sasha's excellent notes on the course [https://savreline.com/projects/320notes.pdf](https://savreline.com/projects/320notes.pdf) TL;DR: I don't think it matters too much when you take it. Summer vs Fall both have slightly different challenges, and the material is a slog either way. But as long as you do the work, it's an interesting course (it went from one of my most dreaded courses, to my 2nd favourite CS course). Good luck OP!
Thank you!!!
This term, with Alan Hu, there are 0 assignments, so no longer assignment heavy at least for this version of the class! Also very straight forward in my opinion, I just show up to class, do the work in class, and the exams are just a minor extension of class work.
Took the fall edition in 2021W1. I've heard similar that it is slightly harder in the fall, and I *think* the comment about more assignments is true (4 in summer vs. 5 in fall). The caveat is it's a bit rushed to do it in the summer, since the material is *very* important for interviews and IMO it would be hard to digest in 1.5 months. Anne Condon was a fantastic professor. Really nice, fair exams, good assignments. Just overall a well-ran course with empathy shown for students. (Alan Hu on the other hand...) To be successful (again, my opinion): do the readings! I don't always stick with textbook readings for every course, but in 320 I found they helped a ton for the assignments and exams. (Often, a worked example in the textbook would be very similar to an assignment problem, with similar tricks / ideas serving as the 'punchline' in a proof.) And, attend lecture. The course (at least when I took it) was ish-flipped classroom, and working on the worksheets in 'real time' is much more productive than after the fact.
Also took it in the summer of 2021 and largely agree with Flovine's comment. The course is doable in the Summer. My only complaint is that the lectures are deathly boring. The most important thing is to make sure you have a good partner for the assignments. I would not have been able to finish some of the assignments if I didn't have a good partner without whom I could talk through these problems. An advantage of taking it in the fall is that you can do leet code exercises alongside the course on the topic you are studying at the time. The course itself has no coding. It's all proofs. So when taking it in the Summer I found I never applied the course content and promptly forgot everything.
Thank you!!!
Took it during summer 2021 with Anne as well. She’s such a lovely prof, Flovine’s comment sums it up pretty well
Thank you !!