CS373 Fall 2021: Zhongyi Wang: Final Entry

How well do you think the course conveyed those takeaways?

I think this class did a great job on those takeaways. Test, test, test is the biggest key in this class. Even though it is painful to self-learn how to write Selenium tests, it is helpful to make sure our project does the right thing.

Were there any other particular takeaways for you?

The other takeaways for me are that I learned a lot of cool Python skills from the lectures, quizzes, and exercises. I also learned how SQL works, and the three Join exercises gave me some experience about how to use SQL in the project.

How did you feel about cold calling?

I was always worried about what would happen if I was called and did not know anything. However, as time went by, I felt the cold calling not that bad. It always kept me focused on the class material. Professor Downing did a great job on the cold calling. He was very patient with the student, and he just wanted to make sure the student who was being cold-called understood the material.

How did you feel about specifications grading?

The specifications grade system felt terrible for me when I first time read the syllabus because we have to get an A for each subcategory to get an A for this class. However, as time went by, I felt it was not that bad as I first thought. Professor Downing tried to give an A for every student in this class. We do not have to compete with the other students in the class. The only thing I do not like is the way that they grade the project. We have to get all M for the grading specs. We may have an R for only a little mistake in the project.

How did you feel about help sessions and office hours?

The help sessions and office hours are helpful for the project. Our group always went to office hours when we had any questions or trouble with our project.

How did you feel about the support from the TAs?

Thank all the TAs, you guys did an amazing job this semester. You guys are the best TA team I have so far.

What required tool did you not know and now find very useful?

Before this class, I never used Postman. After this class, I know We can use Postman to create API tests, and the front-end team can use Postman to look at the detail of our database.

What’s the most helpful Web dev tool that your group used that was not required?

The tool that was not required and our group used for the project is Ngrock. Ngrok is a cross-platform application that exposes local server ports to the Internet. We can use the link to see the change we made for our project.

How did you feel about your group having to self-teach many, many technologies?

It felt nice to learn new technologies in a group. However, it was painful and time-consuming to self-learn all those tools in a couple of weeks. I think it would be better to give us more details about the tools we need for this class.

Give me your suggestions for improving the course, but apologies in advance; specifications grading will remain.

It will be great if we have a 4-minute quiz in a 5-min window. I felt we did not need that long for the group quiz. It will also be amazing if we can pick our group by ourselves.