Brown CS 190 Summer Placement Test/Course - What are others' experiences?

dfSDLfjasl
Wed, 12 Jul 2017 20:45:19 +0000

First of all, congrats to your daughter! Given that she is taking the exam, I can assume that the actual programming concepts aren’t an issue. The feedback on the other hand…

The feedback might be in one of two different categories.

The placement exam is computer tested, so it requires specific results. The requirements for the former might not be 100% specified in the instructions (e.g., the width of a bar on a bar graph). To limit the amount of confusion, the staff set up a discussion board for students. Questions about minutiae like the previous example are resolved quickly and fairly. I don’t think this is the issue.

In addition, the assignment gets trickier in that it is also hand-graded for formatting etiquette, which can be different for different languages and professors. This professor’s standards are specified in the textbook that he linked on his personal website. There have been multiple questions about the “design recipe”, which is described in the textbook. The professor also gave a list of bad etiquette forms to avoid on the first placement assignment.

I am willing to bet that the issue comes from your daughter failing to follow the etiquette instructions that are mentioned multiple times on each assignment and fully explained with examples in the recommended reading. It is not okay to ignore the instructions, even if your functions work fine. This was written in the grading policies that were explained on the assignment page.

If the problem is that the design recipe wasn’t clearly explained, my personal experience taking the same exam strongly disagrees.

If it is with the way Prof. Krishnamurthi responds to students, I would also disagree. I respect that you talk to your class differently, but it comes down to a matter of taste in this case. When the questions are about legitimate gaps in the assigment, as in the bar graph example, he responds completely normally. He only gets snarky when students ask questions about the instructions they should have read. If your daughter skipped the instructions for two(!) placement exams, that gives the wrong impression for an otherwise capable student.

Fortunately, there are two more placement tests which your daughter could easily finish. If she starts following the design specifications and other future instructions, she’ll get into (and excel in!) the class.

Good luck to her!