CSC 165: First thoughts for CSC 165

Choosing CSC 165 as Your First Theory Course

Assuming you are considering continuing with Computer Science, you have a choice to make:

• CSC 165 then CSC 236 (Introduction to the Theory of Computation), or
• CSC 165 then CSC 240 (Enriched Introduction to the Theory of Computation), or just
• CSC 240 (but you can't take CSC 236 without having taken CSC 165).

If you are strong mathematically you should skip CSC 165 and take CSC 240 instead. If you take CSC 165 you can decide later which of CSC 236 or CSC 240 to take depending on your level of interest. Note that CSC 240 is usually offered only in the Winter term.

Prerequisites and Exclusions

The Arts and Science Calendar is the official source of information. Some highlights:

1. Prerequisite: passed at least one of CSC 108/148/150 or taking CSC 148 now.
2. Recommended preparation: first term of MAT 135/137/157.
3. Recommended: passsed CSC 148/150 or taking CSC 148 now; "[you] will be expected to pick up the relevant material from [CSC 148] on your own".

This term the CS Department will enforce the prerequisite (#1 above). If you do not have this prerequisite, they might remove you at any time during the course, even after it is too late to receive back any portion of the course fee. If you are in this situation drop CSC 165 now.

You must be comfortable with at least boolean values, operators and methods, declaring and using methods, if statements, loops and arrays. Start reviewing them now.

If you satisfy the prerequisite because you barely passed CSC 108, or are skipping CSC 108 and taking CSC 148 now, reconsider very carefully whether to take CSC 165.

If you aren't fully prepared, do at least the following:

1. Attend the CSC148 Ramp-up workshops.
2. If you are taking CSC 148 now, see your CSC 148 instructor or TA for guidance on strengthening your understanding of the CSC 108 material.
3. If you are not taking CSC 148 now and haven't passed CSC 148/150 before, ask the current CSC 148 instructor(s) whether you may audit their course.

Time commitment

The course builds. Later material relies heavily on earlier material, and puts the basics together in deeper and more complex ways. Think back to CSC 108: you began with simple statements, and ended up writing complete programs using many types of statements, put together to achieve a goal much larger than any examples you'd seen in lecture.

If you put in a standard 40 hour work week on a full course load, you will be spending 8 hours per week on CSC 165 for about 14 weeks. You might allocate your time as follows:

• Lecture and tutorial at 3 hours / week: 39 hours.
• Reviewing the lecture and tutorial material (best done with other students) at 3 hours / week: 39 hours.
• Assignments (best spread out over a few days) at 6 hours each: 30 hours.
• Midterm preparation at 3 hours each: 6 hours.
• Exam preparation (best spread out over a few days): 6 hours.

If you can't find a worthwhile way to study the lecture and tutorial material without a specific task, review how it relates to the current assignment. Or simply use the time to work on the assignment and prepare for the tests: you could spend up to 12 hours per assignment if you wanted -- that's much more than needed to do a thorough and excellent job!