does anyone have any good ideas on how to approach this course? i've been following the calender, but i'm struggling with the problem sets a LOT. PLEASE HELP :(

Question

anonymous · Answer

Its alright, you definitely need to do the readings and some google searches will definitely help as well. If  you have any questions with the problem sets, you can get a lot of help here!

anonymous · Answer

You have  to remember that it's MIT. The problem sets and exams are going to be very hard and mostly geared towards mathematical/scientific applications. I recommend not following the calendar, and just watching the video lectures while taking notes in a text editor. Take breaks to write and test the code in the lectures, and make variations. Be creative. If you don't understand something, then research it online. Start reading the source code of projects that interest you on sites like github, bitbucket, black duck koders, and launchpad. Don't treat this as a course that you should complete from start to finish. Treat it as a springboard into other things that interest you. Stay curious.

anonymous · Answer

for one, if your really stumped, ask a question on here (try to be specific about the problem our having). There should be a 'been there, done that' person here somewhere. Also, if you do not follow the calendar, then you will probably just be getting advanced material that you will not exactly need for the problem set. just a note, if it says a problem is due on a certain lecture, it means you watch that one too. Finally, you will simply have to commit. Usually something is only as hard as you make it. GOOD LUCK!

anonymous · Answer

In the first lecture proffesor Grimson sad this:
"And nine hours a week of outside-the-class work. Those nine hours are going to be primarily working on problem sets, and all the problems sets are going to involve programming in Python, which is the language we're going to be using this term."

As you see, they think you need about 9 hours a week to complete problem set for that week (excluding problem set 1 and 2).

Don't give up!