Summary
Before I joined university I earned some pocket money as a programmer. This resulted in the first courses of
computer science in practice being quite easy; you may imagine. If you're not familiar with coding so far,
you better should spend some time on learning this in advance before registering for such courses - so won't get
in trouble with timing.
Testing requirements
This area of study consists of many different aspects: some basic courseware and exams, a pre-selected programming example and an audit. You need to meet those criteria:
Classes |
| 01578 |
Programming with PASCAL |
Beginners might struggle when working with both programming courses the same time, since it's required to send in training answers every two weeks
to make sure you may register for later exam.
This course unfortunately was still based on PASCAL language and made use of a commercial course book written in 1995. Later it got replaced by a JAVA tutorial.
|
| 01612 |
Concepts on programming |
You will be presented with several simple implementation tasks for coding. The idea is not just getting the resultant piece of software to
work, it's all about programming style to achieve "better code". Although the style guide that is introduced by the courseware is partially
curious (compared to well-known industrial standards defined by Borland/Inprise) it is a good idea to enforce such constraints in the very
first beginning. There also has been a web-based testing unit that allowed pre-checking the code before uploading final versions.
The second part addresses ideas around software verification. Conducting a full verification cycle is too complex even for small
code packages but it opens your mind to prevent typical coding errors.
|
| 01663 |
Data representation models and structures |
|
You be presented with different standard coding tasks like managing and sorting dynamic amounts of data.
|
| It doesn't matter which sequence is used for training all courses but it makes sense to combine the two programming lessons
to reduce the amount of work: they cover very similar content just from different perspectives. |
Exams |
| 1x |
Data representation models and structures or Concepts on programming |
| You need to pass one of both exams at least with D grade. For maximum flexibility on later audit it's recommended
to attend to both exams.
|
| 1x |
Programming with PASCAL |
| Registering for the practice lab requires a documented skill on programming. Depending on the lab constraints (for example a
predefined implementation language) you need to provide the appropriate exam results. In my case, this has been the PASCAL training. |
Audit |
21110
or
21120
earlier:
C1805 |
Oral audit in computer science in practice, ~ 25 mins.
Concepts on programming or Data representation models and structures |
The audit is complimentary to the exams. In my opinion it's much easier to have an interview on programming instead of
talking about data structures. You also need to take into consideration how long you really need to prepare for such a session.
I scored a grade B but spent no time on preparations, that's the story. |
Practice lab |
| 01580 |
Programming software |
This practice lab is sized and designed for working alone. Every student receives a predefined implementation request that needs
to be designed in both data structures, code and documentation. There's plenty of time to realize the program; around 4 months
without intermediate deadlines. When I joined this lab, I had to create a push-down engine (refer to computer science in theory)
which needed to be self-configuring regarding its rule set and the syntax parser by reading an external grammar file.
Right after this, some demo data needed to be validated without further inputs.
To simplify review and scoring, most parts of the documentation were placed in the code as comment lines. Just a small introduction
document was passed to illustrate the overall solution. Since every student was free in planning, I decided to create my proposal within
a short timeframe of just four weekends. There's still much room for improvements in the code that I finalized but I received an overall
grade of 94%.
Joining this lab requires a successful audit on computer science in practice!
If you also plan attending the lab on programming at hardware level the same time, prepare your nerves for stress accordingly...
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Research and support
