CS373 Fall 2022: Minh Nguyen: Final Entry

• How well do you think the course conveyed those takeaways?

These takeaways were mentioned very often in every lecture’s note so I think the course has conveyed them very well. I think they are pretty helpful and hope that I can apply them in the future.

• Were there any other particular takeaways for you?

Always planning first, it could be done on paper or in your head. The fact that if you already have a good plan about how you solve the problem in the projects, the time you spend writing code is quite short. If you do the other way around, you will be frustrated and consume much more time.

• How did you feel about cold calling?

It is not bad as others would imagine. Prof. Downing won’t be hard on you. This is just a way of helping you pay attention to the lectures. The way he asked question really helped student have a better understanding of problems.

• How did you feel about specifications grading?

The grading is pretty clear, straightforward and less stressful than traditional grading specifications. I can easily keep track my grades and figure out which grade I am gonna get at the end of semester.

• How did you feel about help sessions and office hours and the support from the TAs?

They are very helpful. The instructor and TAs gave me lots of insightful and constructive advice for doing our projects.

• You should have read five papers that describe SOLID design: Single Responsibility, Open-Closed Principle, Liskov Substitution, Interface Segregation, and Dependency Inversion. What insights have they given you?

I did not remember exactly which do all of these paper write about. However, I think they are very essential and important concept in Object-Oriented Design. I think I will have to take a look at them again in the very near future.

• You should have read two papers that advised minimizing getters and setters. What insights have they given you?

Before reading these paper, I thought that getters and setters are always the correct implementation in OOP. Glad that I have read it so I know when and where I should use them and vice versa.

• What required tool did you not know and now find very useful?

I did not have a chance to use Postman and Docker before. After doing the projects, I find they are very helpful and I am willing to learn more about them.

• How did you feel about your group having to self-teach many technologies?

I fell that I have self-teach a lot in doing the project. This is also a necessary skill for me to be successful in the future.

• In the end, how much did you learn relative to other UT CS classes?

I think I have learn a lot from this course. The project is pretty big and focus on many up-to-date technologies and frameworks which very useful for me in the future.