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Algorithms, Lp 1 Ht09, TIN092/DIT600

Your own effort

1. How many hours per week did you spend on this course?

67 svarande

At most 15 hours/week»		23		34%
Around 20 hours/week»		19		28%
Around 25 hours/week»		9		13%
Around 30 hours/week»		13		19%
At least 35 hours/week»		3		4%

Genomsnitt: 2.31

- Unfortunately missed a lot because of work.» (At most 15 hours/week)
- 15h was all I had time for (took three courses)» (At most 15 hours/week)
- At the beginning I was attending more orderly. Through the end I was more likely skipping sessions.» (At most 15 hours/week)
- It takes a long time to develop the thinking for this course» (Around 25 hours/week)
- problems sets meant very high workload» (Around 30 hours/week)
- and i need more time! » (Around 30 hours/week)
- I had to put too much effort into understanding and especially mastering the application of the concepts and still I feel short.» (At least 35 hours/week)
- Although allot of work were put down in the problem-sets, it did not pay very well.» (At least 35 hours/week)

2. How large part of the teaching offered did you attend?

67 svarande

0%»		2		2%
25%»		8		11%
50%»		7		10%
75%»		16		23%
100%»		34		50%

Genomsnitt: 4.07

- Almost all lectures were when I had other mandatory lectures/exercises» (0%)
- Unfortunately missed a lot because of work.» (25%)
- Stopped going halfway through because i didn"t understand more from going to exercise sessions and lectures. Read in the book instead.» (50%)
- Most lectures, maybe half of the exercise sessions.» (75%)
- Devdat is not the greatest teacher, but far from the worst.» (100%)

Goals and goal fulfilment

3. How understandable are the course goals?

I have not seen/read the goals»		16		23%
The goals are difficult to understand»		1		1%
The goals give some guidance, but could be clearer»		20		29%
The goals clearly describe what I am supposed to learn»		30		44%

Genomsnitt: 2.95

- I think if the instructor spends more time in explaining the slides and showing some work on board would help the students» (The goals give some guidance, but could be clearer)
- Good and clear!» (The goals clearly describe what I am supposed to learn)
- but the problem that you don"t have enough time to study all things» (The goals clearly describe what I am supposed to learn)

4. Are the goals reasonable considering your background and the number of credits?

58 svarande

No, the goals are set too low»		1		1%
Yes, the goals seem reasonable»		53		91%
No, the goals are set too high»		4		6%

Genomsnitt: 2.05

- Don"t really know...» (Yes, the goals seem reasonable)

5. Did the examination assess whether you have reached the goals?

No, not at all»		1		1%
To some extent»		18		30%
Yes, definitely»		23		38%
I don"t know/have not been examined yet»		18		30%

Genomsnitt: 2.96

- a bit trickier than i expected, but definitely acceptable.» (To some extent)
- I thought it was a little bit to hard. The questions were sometimes poorly written with spelling errors and misplaced modifier. » (To some extent)
- The examination was very hard to understand, the questions was a bit fuzzy an a lot of unneccesary complicated mathematical notations that made you confused about those insted of the actual assignment. » (To some extent)
- the instructor have to motivate the way of teaching and the way of explaning the the problems » (To some extent)
- It did, but it was hard to find (and formulate and write down) in time.» (Yes, definitely)
- I felt like the design of the exam was good, since every question more or less covered one study week each.» (Yes, definitely)
- I did not attend.» (I don"t know/have not been examined yet)

Teaching and course administration

6. To what extent has the teaching been of help for your learning?

Small extent»		10		14%
Some extent»		20		29%
Large extent»		28		41%
Great extent»		9		13%

Genomsnitt: 2.53

- Due to personal preference and outside factors (i.e I have no opinion on the quality of the teaching).» (Small extent)
- Unable to attend lectures or exercises...» (Small extent)
- I got more out of it when the lecturer were using the blackboard instead of slides. When the slides were used the lecture had a much higher pace, which was hard to keep up with» (Some extent)
- Sometimes the lectures almost cited the course book. It would be nice if the lectures offered something a bit different than the book» (Large extent)
- Good lectures, sometimes things happen a bit too fast though. This means that you have to think a bit too much and when you"ve finally figured out whatever it was - you"ve missed a lot.» (Large extent)
- Even though i missed a lot of lectures, I felt the teacher and teaching assistants where always accessible if you needed help» (Large extent)
- Professor Mr. Dubashi is really a good professor and he tried to teach the subject efficiently.He made jokes,try to increase the participation that is why i have understood the lecture and assistant Willard Rafnsson really helped us to understand the problems he tried his best to solve the problems and he performed the lecture efficiently but the other assistant Birgit Grohe was not so helpful and could not perform well during the lessions» (Great extent)
- Good lectures. Many funny, memorable examples and little stories during lectures. Good with interactivity between lecturer and students, although it was a bit too much of a one-to-one discussion between lecturer and a small number of students sometimes, particularly in very last lecture. The exercise sessions were a bit slow at times, though.» (Great extent)

7. To what extent has the course literature and other material been of help for your learning?

Small extent»		5		7%
Some extent»		24		36%
Large extent»		28		42%
Great extent»		9		13%

Genomsnitt: 2.62

- I couldn"t afford to buy the text book so I downloaded an e version of it. Its hard to concentrate when reading on your computer.» (Small extent)
- the book is too verbose, which dilutes the interesting content» (Small extent)
- the instructor have to motivate the way of teaching and the way of explaning the the problems » (Some extent)
- The course book could have more exercises with answers, we did not know if we soled them correctly or not.» (Large extent)
- Although... I could have done more to savour that material.» (Large extent)
- A very good book! The only minus is that it does not come with a solutions manual, which can be annoying at times.» (Great extent)
- Nice texbook and combined with the weekly asignments you have everything you can ask for.» (Great extent)

8. Difficulty of the programming assignments?

Too difficult»		2		2%
Neither too difficult or too easy»		54		80%
Too easy»		11		16%

Genomsnitt: 2.13

- If we only get 3 times to hand in, you"d think the graders could write a better comments when returning the assignment. And be a bit quicker when going through them as well..» (Neither too difficult or too easy)
- Teamwork was the main problem. People coming from different backgrounds, try to do something the very first days of study (new international students)» (Neither too difficult or too easy)
- Should be changed ASAP! 1) They cover *the same problem* 2) the first one covers techniques *you are not supposed to use 3) the seconds solution is EXPLAINED in the lecture, making it useless. Instead, I think there should be more labs! Each covering a seperate problem.» (Too easy)
- Very easy in one sense, but it"s not a course in programming. The main effort was writing the report, which is as it should be. Perhaps the problems/questions should have been choosen in such a way as too induce a higher level of immersion in analysis of the algorithms.» (Too easy)

9. How well does the programming assignment contribute to the understanding of the course?

Not at all»		9		13%
To some extend»		42		62%
Yes, definitely»		16		23%

Genomsnitt: 2.1

- I don"t think the programming assignment helped me to understand the course better. It only raised problems with implementation, not with the actual algorithms.» (Not at all)
- The labs where poorly designed as explained earlier.» (Not at all)
- it has explained only one problem!» (To some extend)
- Very well subject. Shows the difference of brute force methods and using the mind finding better solutions.» (Yes, definitely)

10. Further comments about the programming assignment

11. How many problem sets did you submit?

none»		8		12%
1-2»		14		21%
3-4»		19		28%
5-6»		25		37%

Genomsnitt: 2.92

- Not submitting problem sets definitely was a mistake.» (none)
- Only one. And I got only half mark for one question. Second question was judged as solved totally wrong and third question was "randomly" ommitted, which is ironic because I got it perfectly right. I lacked motivation to submit the subsequent problem sets.» (1-2)
- They were very difficult, but I liked that you changed so that you could get help before submitting.» (3-4)
- The problem sets were good even though they were hard, but the setup with excercise sessions didn"t match so well.» (3-4)
- I thought they were good and helped a lot. However, it was very hard to know how much work you should spend on each set, especially on the first problem set.» (5-6)
- It was not easy to understand exactly what to write to get full credit.» (5-6)

12. How well did the problem set contribute to the understanding of the course?

not at all»		1		1%
To some extend»		23		34%
Yes, definitely»		38		56%
I did not submit any problem set»		5		7%

Genomsnitt: 2.7

- They were a bit to hard and it was diffucult to get help and som real understanding.» (To some extend)
- Problem set are really help full to understanding course.» (Yes, definitely)
- Allot. » (Yes, definitely)
- Very helpful. A more true test of algorithmic skills and knowledge than the exam since solutions should be much more detailed/complete in comparison, and therefore it"s also very educational. » (Yes, definitely)
- They definitely contribute. Putting time on solving the problems, both reinforces the material, and makes the mind faster in proposing and working on a potential algorithm.» (Yes, definitely)

13. Difficulty of the problem sets?

Very difficult»		23		35%
Difficult to some extent»		36		56%
Easy to some extend»		5		7%
Very easy»		0		0%

Genomsnitt: 1.71

- -» (?)
- They were a bit to hard and it was diffucult to get help and som real understanding. And Birgit made it clear that it was not the knowledge that was important, it was the way to the knowledge. Something that feel just ridicoulus in comparision to the real world.» (?)
- I think it would be nice to include one easier exercise in each problem set (perhaps generating max 1 bonus point). Then, it would be more motivating to do the exercise.» (Very difficult)
- I didn"t submit any, but I heard from other fellow students that they were hard.» (Very difficult)
- And the problem was that we didn"t know how to formulate us. If we did exactly like Devdat had shown on the lectures, you should be glad to get 0.5 out of 2p.» (Very difficult)
- It took a lot of time to solve them but in the end I learned a lot» (Difficult to some extent)
- Keep them, they were really good! But it would be nice to be able to ask more questions about them etc..» (Difficult to some extent)
- Perfect level of difficulty in my opinion. Not very complex problems but a signicant investment of time is still needed (and probably impossible to do correctly without grasping the material).» (Difficult to some extent)
- But they made it clear that the problem sets are indeed difficult. » (Difficult to some extent)
- Good mixture. There were both easy and difficult ones.» (Difficult to some extent)

14. Further comments about the problem sets, grading and bonus point distribution

15. How well did the course administration, web page, handouts etc work?

Very badly»		0		0%
Rather badly»		6		9%
Rather well»		35		53%
Very well»		25		37%

Genomsnitt: 3.28

- Much clearer info in the beginning beginning please!» (Rather badly)
- I think the course page is a bit messy and its hard to find what you are looking for. Maybe a meny or something wouldd be nice.» (Rather well)
- The sessions without video projector did not went well. fex network flow session.» (Rather well)
- No handouts during the lectures, all materials online, and more, sums up to an acceptable reliance on the course administrator.» (Rather well)
- Simple and concise! Good lecture notes. Nothing to complain abot here.» (Very well)

Study climate

16. How were the opportunities for asking questions and getting help?

Very poor»		2		2%
Rather poor»		12		17%
Rather good»		23		34%
Very good»		13		19%
I did not seek help»		17		25%

Genomsnitt: 3.46

- I think there should be supervised time to work with the problems at least one time each week» (Rather poor)
- It helped when you added the time to ask for the problem set. But I would like to have more times when you could work on problems in class and raise your hand to get help by a teacher.» (Rather poor)
- You send an email asking about a problem set, and you get the answer like "look more carefully".» (Rather poor)
- As I said earlier, felt like the teachers where always accessible. Liked the excercise sessions.» (Very good)

17. How well has cooperation between you and your fellow students worked?

Very poorly»		2		2%
Rather poorly»		5		7%
Rather well»		23		34%
Very well»		31		46%
I did not seek cooperation»		6		8%

Genomsnitt: 3.5

- We were not allowed to cooperate» (Very poorly)
- The swedish students are cold to international master students so we were friends with the other international students» (Rather poorly)
- It"s a master program in English and not in Swedish. Working with people in swedish it"s really difficult.» (Rather well)
- Worked alright! » (Rather well)
- Cooperation => Assignment» (Rather well)
- It is hard to say how the "cooperation between you and your fellow students worked" since the course strictly forbid all such activity. I"m not sure about the other teachers, but Birgit clearly stated that it is not important that you learn the different parts of this course, it is how. » (Very well)

18. How was the course workload?

Too low»		1		1%
Low»		0		0%
Adequate»		29		43%
High»		29		43%
Too high»		8		11%

Genomsnitt: 3.64

- More labs!» (Adequate)
- I found the problem sets very difficult and also the programming assignment» (High)
- Fortunately the course I read in parallel with the algorithms course did not require much time. I do not think I could have handled two courses with this workload. (This was almost solely because of the problem sets)» (High)
- The course *is* demanding.» (High)

19. How was the total workload this study period?

Too low»		1		1%
Low»		4		5%
Adequate»		18		26%
High»		30		44%
Too high»		14		20%

Genomsnitt: 3.77

- Normally too low (i.e this period was slightly higher than usual)» (Adequate)
- Because I select 3 courses in this quarter.» (High)
- Stuying 150%, so it"s my fault :)» (High)
- Mainly due to the other course» (Too high)
- Read another course that took up *a lot* of time.» (Too high)
- Three courses tend to do that to you.» (Too high)

Summarizing questions

20. What is your general impression of the course?

Poor»		3		4%
Fair»		2		2%
Adequate»		15		22%
Good»		32		47%
Excellent»		15		22%

Genomsnitt: 3.8

- This course should be elective and not mandatory.» (Poor)
- Insteresting course, but really hard» (Good)
- Interesting» (Good)
- I have gained a much higher level of understanding and appreciation of algorithms, which is very gratifying. This is not always the case so I wan"t to say that the course was excellent, but I did not like the exam very much. I felt like it was a bit too shallow and formulaic. (But it"s probably impossible to create a good 4 hour exam in a subject such as algorithms) » (Good)

21. What should definitely be preserved to next year?

22. What should definitely be changed to next year?

23. Additional comments