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Algorithms, spring 2010, TIN092 och DIT600

Your own effort

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

48 svarande

At most 15 hours/week»		21		43%
Around 20 hours/week»		15		31%
Around 25 hours/week»		11		22%
Around 30 hours/week»		1		2%
At least 35 hours/week»		0		0%

Genomsnitt: 1.83

- More in the end...» (At most 15 hours/week)
- I went to all of the lectures and demonstrations (apart from one or two that I missed), did (or am doing) all of the labs, and I"m studying for the exam.» (Around 25 hours/week)
- I have spent most of my time with only this course» (Around 30 hours/week)

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

48 svarande

0%»		1		2%
25%»		5		10%
50%»		2		4%
75%»		16		33%
100%»		24		50%

Genomsnitt: 4.18

- Was in the hospital during the most part of the course due to an injury» (0%)
- Good courses for the ones I attended» (75%)
- I didn"t assist two lectures because I add some meetings with a company to attend» (75%)
- Depending on the other courses I took» (75%)
- more like 90%, but 100 is the closest» (100%)
- I tried to be in every class, because otherwise I would lose track of the course.» (100%)
- 95%» (100%)
- I think the teaching in this alg course was better than the other one. » (100%)
- Maybe high 90"s or something, I went to all of the lectures save one or two.» (100%)

3. Dropp out reason on Mondays?

- Hangover»
- Attended Mondays.»
- no, only some day that I was abroad»
- i was there on mondays»
- I was always there :-)»
- few times I didn"t attend it was because it was monday, and I simply couldn"t be arsed, wouldn"t have mattered what course it was ,-)»
- Was on the lectures at Mondays :)»
- same as Q2.»
- monday laziness syndrome»
- It collided with the lecture in DAT026 Mathematical Modelling IT.»
- I missed it once when I overslept. And once I was a few minutes late (again, overslept). All of the others I was on time for.»
- Not in my case»
- I attended all Monday lectures»
- More important lecture in a more important course.»
- I didn"t drop out on Mondays.»
- Hard week-ends»
- Some trips organized during the week-end»
- Didn"t sleep enough on sundays»
- Kandidatarb.»

Goals and goal fulfilment

4. How understandable are the course goals?

I have not seen/read the goals»		6		12%
The goals are difficult to understand»		1		2%
The goals give some guidance, but could be clearer»		13		27%
The goals clearly describe what I am supposed to learn»		27		57%

Genomsnitt: 3.29

- i probably have seen them, but can"t remember it right now» (I have not seen/read the goals)
- I did glance over the goals in the beginning of the course, but I don"t remember them well enough to answer this question.» (I have not seen/read the goals)
- More details perhaps.» (The goals give some guidance, but could be clearer)

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

45 svarande

No, the goals are set too low»		0		0%
Yes, the goals seem reasonable»		41		91%
No, the goals are set too high»		4		8%

Genomsnitt: 2.08

- no idea, se above:)» (Yes, the goals seem reasonable)
- Book is very difficult to understand. Its approach does not match our level. I found it very hard to read and understand book. If u think this is not the case, then at least there should be one lecture, how to read the book???» (Yes, the goals seem reasonable)

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

40 svarande

No, not at all»		1		2%
To some extent»		2		5%
Yes, definitely»		1		2%
I don"t know/have not been examined yet»		36		90%

Genomsnitt: 3.8

- During the exam» (?)

Teaching and course administration

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

48 svarande

Small extent»		1		2%
Some extent»		13		27%
Large extent»		22		45%
Great extent»		12		25%

Genomsnitt: 2.93

- Mandatory exercises forces you to learn prior to the last week before exam. Lab instructions could be a lot more clearer. The documentation on the submission guidelines is strikingly sub-Chalmers standard.» (Some extent)
- Good with lectures on the web, since I hadn"t possibility to attend all lectures» (Some extent)
- Lectures were not that good. Huge problems every time someone asked a question with substandard english. I was expecting more from both the teacher and the other students.» (Some extent)
- the teacher was better than average, however i didn"t liked the 4 hours straight on wednesdays» (Large extent)
- The assignments were really interesting and covered most things we were taught during the course. I also enjoyed the lectures and exercise sessions, they were quite interactive and really put my brain in action again. But now it"s like a confusion in my head, I hope it will be gone while I study again before the exam. The UCC and LCC were harder to understand and probably needed to be analyzed more.» (Large extent)
- all of them are very useful» (Large extent)
- It would"ve been far more difficult without the lectures. As is, in my opinion, often the case, the demonstration lectures are very rewarding.» (Large extent)
- Maybe it would be a good idea for the tutor to check the logic behind each statement that he/she gives before every lecture. This, in order to avoid embarrassing contradictions and other perplexing situations. For instance, the last lecture when the tutor made a big deal out of the fact that you were not supposed or allowed to "change" the algorithms in any way when making reductions i.e. The way the algorithms were presented was written in stone and could not be altered. And then the tutor presented a solution to one of the EXAM questions that needed "tampering" with the statement of one of the algorithms that were not changeable in order to work, namely the sorting algorithm. This, to me, was very perplexing and confusing. If something is defined, e.g. the input to a given algorithm should be ONLY integers, then if the solution need this statement altered to work at all, then that is not a solution to the given problem? (see problem 5 and the solution sketches on the website) Maybe something to think about? Maybe this sounds a bit hard, but the course is very mind-stretching as it is, and therefore it would seem necessary that the confusing stuff is kept to a minimum. » (Large extent)
- I didn"t attend any help assignement session. The lectures and exercices sessions were really good and well-organized! I"ve attended the advanced algorithm courses in the second period which was not at all in that style of teaching and I definetely like this way, it"clear, organized and you understand almost everything when you are at the lecture which feels very good.» (Large extent)
- Nice labs, I think. The assistants were great.» (Large extent)

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

48 svarande

Small extent»		11		22%
Some extent»		13		27%
Large extent»		17		35%
Great extent»		7		14%

Genomsnitt: 2.41

- If u don"t count the slides and labs.» (Small extent)
- The book hasn"t been to that much help. The slides is very appriciated and has been to very good help.» (Small extent)
- I admit I didn"t read the book a lot, because you have to read long paragraphes to find a little information so I"d rather google it. However I"ve read some in my past courses and I know that it"s a good book if you really didn"t understand at all a topic, but not if you want a precise information.» (Small extent)
- Between doing my BSc project and the assignments, I basically haven"t had time to open the book.» (Some extent)
- Your papers where of great help. But the book was not good at all in my opinion. The book is purely based on examples and even if that often gives great help I would rather have some book with clearer definitions and more(or clearer) explanations of the procedures when designing, implementing and analyzing algorithms. » (Some extent)
- I have not used the course book a great deal. If I had, it probably could"ve been useful. The copies of slides (and the pdf:s on the course website) are great.» (Some extent)
- I have read parts of the book, it"s really great, especially for a scientific area like Algorithms that should be treated carefully. The idea to give handouts was very useful so that someone could follow the course while the teacher was talking.» (Large extent)
- Large: when refering to slides. Small: when refering to the book.» (Large extent)
- The book is very good.» (Large extent)
- copies the slides are very helpful work» (Large extent)
- There should be more recommended exercises to do, with solutions. There should also be more old exams to exercise on, with solutions. As it is now, after you have done the old exams, you don"t know if you"ve done them the right way, have never experienced that in an earlier course, should it be that way? » (Large extent)
- except book. I could not learn any thing from book.» (Large extent)
- Didn"t buy course book» (Large extent)
- The book is a good complement to the slides. They are good but sometime, it is hard to pack every details in slides so I found the book very good for this, the little details.» (Large extent)
- Mostly from reading the copies of the slides» (Large extent)
- Copies of slides are too good. But it is so much necessary to put the slides before the lecture at least two days before.» (Great extent)
- Book is good, slides are confusing at times and often information is kept from them, probally to make people go to the lectures?» (Great extent)

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

Very badly»		0		0%
Rather badly»		5		10%
Rather well»		30		63%
Very well»		12		25%

Genomsnitt: 3.14

- The web page is horrible. Hard to navigate and buttons placed on the most strange places and in strange sizes.» (Rather badly)
- The web page was hard to navigate and didn"t have all information I needed. For example, what can I bring to the exam? Only old information about that could be found.» (Rather badly)
- hard to get to fire. you always seemed to end up on a page describing how fire worked instead. i could have solved it by bookmarking the page but...» (Rather well)
- Labs were sometimes posted a little late. I would have liked to be able to start working on some of them earlier.» (Rather well)
- Not much to say here, it was good.» (Rather well)
- The fire system is a bit tricky» (Rather well)
- It worked well but overall presentation could be better but I don"t have specific ideas.» (Rather well)
- this enquiry can not be found even though it should be here» (Rather well)

10. Comments on the assignments: which once did you like? Also comment on level of difficulty and contribution to learning.

48 svarande

Ass 1 Good»		5		10%
Ass 1 Bad»		2		4%
Ass 2 Good»		11		22%
Ass 2 Bad»		0		0%
Ass 3 Good»		11		22%
Ass 3 Bad»		9		18%
Ass 4 Good»		9		18%
Ass 4 Bad»		1		2%

Genomsnitt: 4.62

- (can"t select more than one :E) All were pretty good and feasible in the amount of time given so it motivates you to learn more than really hard assignements you can have sometimes.» (Ass 1 Good)
- I can only choose one option here, not one of each! ass 1 bad. ass 2 good, ass 3 good, ass 4 good» (Ass 1 Bad)
- as1-good, as2-really good, 3as part1 good, part2 really hard, 4as- a bit unclear» (Ass 2 Good)
- Well I can only choose one option, so I went with Ass 2 Good, as it was my favorite. All in all, I thought they were good, but I wish there could"ve been a little bit more help at times, the responses you got via the fire systems when a submission was rejected were usually really short. Maybe they could have been a little bit more helpful?» (Ass 2 Good)
- assignments 2, question 1 seemed trivial. liked the other assignments.» (Ass 2 Good)
- I think all of them were good. They all took up important parts from the lectures.» (Ass 2 Good)
- ass 1: prime function good. Startup lab absolutely horrible. Probably the most confused instructions I"ve seen in my entire Chalmers career. ass 2. both were good labs. ass 3. tricky labs, especially number 2. good ones, no specific comments. ass 4. nice pre-exam thing.» (Ass 3 Good)
- Since we can choose only one, I would say that I liked 3.2 the most, because it was difficult. I generally think that 2 and 3 were the best. The grading was kind-of strict, I was sure that everything was fine and then I got a rejection! But maybe it"s better, so that we are more careful with mathematical notions and prepared for the exam.» (Ass 3 Good)
- Difficulty rate x stated in Assy"(x/5)" Ass1(3/5): Great warmup, hint on prime number theorem maybe? Ass2(3/5): Great forcing us to create/follow proofs. Ass3(5/5): Challenging which is a good thing. We implemented them to see how much we gained from memoization. Learned that it was a powerful thing on both problems, maybe include a hint on trying this? Should maybe include the hints later published from the beginning? Ass 4(3/5): This assignment gives the hands on experience on chapter eight and lectures on classification and different cost criterias to make those things enderstandable.» (Ass 3 Good)
- All the assignments was too good. And also i have been actually being helped a lot by filippo (T.A.) to solve them and understand them in the best way. Otherwise, I dont think, I would be able to solve them as these were too difficult.» (Ass 3 Good)
- There should be one problem required to be implemented in Java. So that students can learn about other issues like while implementing Knapsack one gets stack and memory errors.» (Ass 3 Good)
- Assignment 1 was good at all, while the startup lab was a bit unclear (some confusing names like tass0 and it was not clear should we put some general notes into the readme file) First part could be clarified. Assignments 2 and 3 were nice since there is a lot of practical things. Assignment 4 was also good, maybe there was too much theory for the lab, but it helps students to remember differences between classes.» (Ass 3 Good)
- Ass 1: The part on linux was too much in my opinion Ass 2: Excellent Ass 3: Excellent Ass 4: A later hand-in would have been better» (Ass 3 Good)
- on 2: the induction proof was sort of difficult. maybe more help on that one. on 3: to much focus on the details on the grading» (Ass 3 Bad)
- 1 good, 2 good, 3.1 good, 3.2 very bad, 4 bad. Assignment 3.2 was so vague and there were no examples. Assignment for you: find a function g(i,x) that gives an "interesting" answer to maxReturn, i.e. where the best strategy is not to simply invest all the money in a single company.» (Ass 3 Bad)
- Difficult to come up with the solution» (Ass 3 Bad)
- I quite like all the assignments, and have so far learned the most from them.» (Ass 4 Good)
- The assignments was good but see Q.12 for elaboration.» (Ass 4 Good)
- good for learning the different parts of the course!» (Ass 4 Good)
- They take too much time, and the 4th is very difficult» (Ass 4 Bad)

11. Is 4 hour in a row on Wednesdays a good idea?

Yes»		27		56%
No»		21		43%

Genomsnitt: 1.43

- A good thing. Long but it helps to compact the learning to one day in the week like that IMO.» (Yes)
- Exercises right after the lecture is the best way to comprehend more things.» (Yes)
- A bit long sometimes but preferable against more spread out.» (Yes)
- As long as one part is "hands-on" it"s allright.» (Yes)
- Worked well.» (Yes)
- not optimal, but ok.» (Yes)
- Didn"t attend in large extent, but in general no problems with 4 hours in a row...» (Yes)
- Yes, it is convenient imho» (Yes)
- It"s a little bit harder to be concentrated the whole length but I prefer this way» (Yes)
- Because you are in the algo mood, and you understand what you learnt because directly because for most of student we don"t read lecture notes right after the lecture, so separate exercices make us a bit lost :)» (Yes)
- i guess it"s better to do it on one day for those who can focus for 4 hours. i cant.» (No)
- spread out on more days. My head is very tired at 17:00.» (No)
- Personal attention span, and preference ,-)» (No)
- Maybe it"s good, but not in that awful classroom.» (No)
- was a bit heavy to have 4 hrs in a row » (No)
- its very hard to take two consecutive classes. Exercise should be at least one day after the lecture. It will help a lot to prepare for exercise.» (No)
- too long» (No)
- There is no way that you are able to keep your head in check for 4 hours of algorithms. » (No)

Study climate

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

Very poor»		2		4%
Rather poor»		3		6%
Rather good»		17		35%
Very good»		20		41%
I did not seek help»		6		12%

Genomsnitt: 3.52

- I get why you don"t schedule supervision for the whole course but I think that 2-3 times near the end would be of great help. People start to really study for the exams and questions will arise. On top of that almost everyone has to fix their labs so I think that a few supervision hours in RW 8 would be of great help.» (Very poor)
- Could be more supervised times when you could work with the assigmnents» (Rather good)
- Emailing Erland/lab assistants worked well. When we went to Erland for the lab supervision we had to wait half an hour or so. We almost left, since we thought there was no one there. Once it was our turn, though, we got lots of help, so that was good!» (Rather good)
- Filipo was a great help!» (Rather good)
- People should have been more active, because I am sure that there were questions and the teacher was very helpful, but they were not asking.» (Very good)
- Maybe it would be a good idea for some of the assistants to give a hint or two in the comments of the rejected solutions, instead of just stating that the solution does not work?» (Very good)

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

Very poorly»		1		2%
Rather poorly»		4		8%
Rather well»		21		43%
Very well»		18		37%
I did not seek cooperation»		4		8%

Genomsnitt: 3.41

- she did nothing and i did all part lonely.if any person work on assignment is better that group.because many student who take this course don"t know each other .» (Very poorly)
- This is usually a matter of luck, if you don"t know the lab partner. But I had a really good cooperation.» (Rather well)
- Would"ve preferred to not waste time on collaboration. Having seen the Hitlerjugend in action suffices for the rest of your life to be very wary of "team spirit". --Dijkstra» (Rather well)
- I had a little bit of trouble finding a lab partner, but once I got one, that has worked out well enough.» (Rather well)
- Me and my lab partner worked pretty well togheter but we had limited time to when we could work.» (Rather well)

14. How was the course workload?

Too low»		0		0%
Low»		2		4%
Adequate»		22		45%
High»		19		39%
Too high»		5		10%

Genomsnitt: 3.56

- Just about right, I thought. Perhaps, as mentioned above, it could"ve been eased a bit with a tad more help with the labs.» (Adequate)
- Don"t know... I"ve been depressed. Everything"s too much ,)» (Adequate)
- The home exams were really time consuming» (High)
- Course load is too much. It seem to be greater than two courses of Chalmers. Please reduce the work load and try to come up to students level.» (Too high)

15. How was the total workload this study period?

Too low»		0		0%
Low»		2		4%
Adequate»		11		22%
High»		18		37%
Too high»		17		35%

Genomsnitt: 4.04

- See #14» (Adequate)
- Kandidatprojektet took up lots of time. That was my, and my group"s fault though.» (High)
- But I had 3 courses so..:)» (High)
- this period is a nightmare» (Too high)
- I followed 3 courses, but this is my mistake.» (Too high)
- Bachelor Thesis got in the way.» (Too high)
- In combination with bachelor thesis (kandidatarbete) the work load was too high.» (Too high)
- Bachelors thesis really took the most of my time in the end of the course.» (Too high)
- 30 hours of labs in another course each week plus this and lectures overlaping.» (Too high)
- To have this course in connection to the hand-in of the bachelor thesis is a bit much.» (Too high)

Summarizing questions

16. What is your general impression of the course?

Poor»		1		2%
Fair»		2		4%
Adequate»		12		25%
Good»		25		52%
Excellent»		8		16%

Genomsnitt: 3.77

- Lectures could have been better and less confusing. This is not a advanced course but it is harder then it needs to be.» (Adequate)
- more lab help would make it excellent» (Good)
- Very good, I can"t say "excellent" because I have not yet seen the exam and if the questions will test our knowledge in the best possible way.» (Good)
- Knowledge that it at least "feels" like it can be applied on more fields than just CS.» (Good)
- I think that what i"ve learned in this course really will help me in the future and be in the back of my mind when I code.» (Good)
- Very fun course. Interesting subject, as well, so I guess that helps. I would put this somewhere between Good and Excellent, but I"d rather reserve Excellent for maybe the one or two best courses I"ve taken here. So it"s a Good+.» (Good)
- but very hard» (Good)
- Interesting! and really good teaching!» (Excellent)

17. What should definitely be preserved to next year?

18. What should definitely be changed to next year?

19. Additional comments

20. Randomly pick one of the random numbers below and bring it to the exam. It"s the answer to one of the questions there.

- It will be interesting to see how many answers that will be ID:able due to the picking of a random number in itself being random, eg, a number is unique. I try to chose an anonymous number (eg, one that several people are likely to pick :))»
- it"s ok»
- how many possibilities are there to just guess a number? 110 divided by 90000...»
- wait, what?»
- Cool:)»
- This is a good idea, this is valuable feedback!»
- Whatever works.»
- Forcing us to do this evaluation before the exam is not very good.»
- 44501»
- If you get higher ratio of participants I don"t see why it would be a bad idea. »
- not fair for those who forget to bring the code to the exam. questions on exam will not be handed in by most of the students. why pick a random number? calvin&hobbes would have done it, too.»
- Good way to motivate students for evaluation. »
- Giving one point on the exam for something that is irrelevant to the course? No, it is not a good idea. Also this more or less forces people to answer the questionare before the exam and then on the exam show that they have answered it. It might not really jepordise that one can pin point a student to a answer on the questionare but it is a step in that direction.»
- I understand the idea of making the students do the evaluation, but in a way it kinda makes you feel that you are back in grade school were you sometimes got a point for not forgetting to put your name on the exam.»
- Good idea, a free point is always welcomed.»
- 93590 »
- It worked!:)»
- nice»
- I think it"s a little weird that the course enquiry should give points at the exam. I"d rather get bonus points from the labs or something which actually tests my knowledge. All bonus points are good though! :) (http://www.random.org/ - I think I should get extra credits for *really* doing my picking randomly)»
- I don"t like the idea of forcing students like this at all.»