<p>I’m currently a BioE major, planning to switch to EECS. Just a simple question – How much do you use your laptop? And for what purposes (ie. programming). How much time do you spend just going pencil and paper when studying? What are the CS homeworks like, and do you usually write it out on paper before entering it into a computer? Any tips/suggestions?</p>
<p>Take a look at the CS homeworks given in the course home pages here if you want to see what they are like:
[EECS</a> Course WEB Sites](<a href=“http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/classes-eecs.html]EECS”>CAS - Central Authentication Service)</p>
<p>cs70,170,172,174 are pencil and paper except very occasional programming assignments (like a couple in the whole semester). Everything else CS is almost completely on the computer.</p>
<p>Thanks! what about like physics and math?</p>
<p>Physics homework (for 7A,7B,7C) is done via MasteringPhysics, an online website. I usually sit in front of my laptop with my pencil/paper/calculator and work each problem out by hand before inputting the answer online. </p>
<p>Math (1A,1B,53,54) does not require a computer at all, except maybe if you want to look at the practice exams without printing them out.</p>
<p>haha if i bought a 13" Macbook Pro, would that be big enough for say the average amount of computer work EECS majors do?</p>
<p>The only thing that really matters is screen size and comfort. Personally I would not buy a mac; it’s too expensive. You can use any OS and it will be fine. A desktop or cheap laptop + a 20" or larger monitor to plug into would be great. If you have an extra monitor lying around 2 monitors can be helpful sometimes to have references on one screen while you code on the other, but I wouldn’t buy two monitors just for that.</p>
<p>yeah, im definitely bringing my external monitor with me to college, thanks! do you guys take your laptop to class with you?</p>
<p>There’s no more occasion to use the laptop in CS class than non-CS (so if you want to take notes with it or look at lecture slides).
I have to facepalm whenever I look a few rows down and somebody’s playing robot unicorn attack or something. I think one of the 61B or C profs actually banned laptops from their lecture.</p>
<p>im in eecs and I’ve got a desktop computer with some pretty sweet specs right now. How necessary is a laptop? Would something like a tablet pc to take notes in class be good enough or is an actual laptop ever necessary in classes?</p>
<p>it’s all up to you. One could get through eecs without even owning a computer, by going into Soda to work.
Specs are nice for projects that require a lot of computation like 164 or 188 to save some compile or run time, but it’s really not a big deal.</p>