CS61A Final Survey, Spring 2008

Thank you for your honest answers to this survey. It will be used to help us design better instruction in CS lower-division courses. Your answers will not affect your grade in any way! Your instructor will get your login (to determine that you should get the bonus point) but will not see any other answers until after grades are submitted.

There are 43 VERY SHORT questions, which should take you less than 15 minutes to answer.

Questions 25-43 concern our MapReduce material.

0: What is your instructional login? (Please enter it in the form "cs61a-xx".)

1: What is your gender?

Male
Female

2: Do you consider yourself to be an underrepresented ethnic or racial minority within computer science courses that you have seen so far?

Yes
No
I don't know.
I decline to state.

3: Did you take CS 3 in a lab-based format?

Yes
No

4: What's your major? (If you are undeclared, use your most likely choice.)

Computer Science
Business
Other Engineering
Cognitive Science
Biology
Mathematics
Physical science
Other social science
Humanities
Other

5: Before taking this course this semester, how good a programmer did you consider yourself to be?

A very good programmer
A good programmer
A reasonable programmer
A bad programmer
A terrible programmer
I had no skill at programming
I don't know/can't say

6: At this time, how good a programmer do you consider yourself to be?

A very good programmer
A good programmer
A reasonable programmer
A bad programmer
A terrible programmer
I have no skill at programming
I don't know/can't say

7: Before taking this course this semester, how difficult did you expect this course to be?

Very difficult
Moderately difficult
Neither difficult nor easy
Moderately easy
Very easy
I don't know/can't say

8: At this time, how difficult do you think this course was?

Very difficult
Moderately difficult
Neither difficult nor easy
Moderately easy
Very easy
I don't know/can't say

9: Write down 3 to 5 adjectives or phrases that most describe your experiences with programming. They should complete this sentence:

From my experience in this class, for me, programming is...

(an example might be "rewarding" or "not something I want to do ever again").

From my experience in this class, for me, programming is...
From my experience in this class, for me, programming is...
From my experience in this class, for me, programming is...
From my experience in this class, for me, programming is...
From my experience in this class, for me, programming is...

10: How much did you improve as a programmer because of this course?

A large amount.
I improved some.
Not at all.
I don't know/can't say

11: In university lecture courses that you took before this semester, do you feel that you generally learned more:

In lecture
In lab/discussion.
While studying by myself or in a group.
There are no general patterns across different lecture courses.
Not applicable (I hadn't taken any university lecture courses yet).

12: In this course, do you feel that you generally learned more:

In lecture
In lab/discussion.
While studying by myself or in a group.
There are no general patterns across different lecture courses.
I don't know/can't say.

13: How often did you seek help from sources not associated with this class? (This means sources beyond the course TAs and LAs, the course text, students taking the course currently, and so forth. Outside sources might be tutors you hire or saw at the SLC or CSUA, HKN, students from past semesters, and other textbooks.)

Yes, often.
Some of the time.
No, not usually.
I don't know/can't say.

14: Do you often stay up late to finish school work shortly before it is due?

Yes, often.
Some of the time.
No, not usually.
I don't know/can't say.

15: Because of procrastination, did you get started late on the project(s)?

Yes
For some of them
No, not on the projects.
I didn't really procrastinate in this class
I don't know/can't say.

16: Because of procrastination, did you do less work on the project(s) than you would otherwise have done?

Yes.
For some of them.
No, not on the projects.
I didn't really procrastinate in this class
I don't know/can't say.

17: Because of procrastination, did you get started late studying for the exams?

Yes
For some of them
No, not for the exams.
I didn't really procrastinate in this class
I don't know/can't say.

18: Because of procrastination, did you study less for the exams than you would have otherwise?

Yes
For some of them
No, not for the exams.
I didn't really procrastinate in this class
I don't know/can't say.

19: How often did you ask questions in lab and discussion sections?

I asked questions in every section I attended, or nearly so.
I asked questions on many of the sections I attended.
I asked questions on some of the sections I attended.
I only asked questions a few times this semester.
I never asked question in lab or discussion section.
I don't know or can't say.

20: In lab and discussion sections, how often are you reluctant to ask a question because you don't want to waste the time of the T.A. or other students?

Almost always.
Most of the time.
Sometimes.
Rarely.
Never.
I don't know/can't say.

21: In lab and discussion sections, how often are you reluctant to ask a question because you are nervous about speaking in front of other students?

Almost always.
Most of the time.
Sometimes.
Rarely.
Never.
I don't know/can't say.

22: In lab and discussion sections, how often are you reluctant to ask a question because you are afraid your classmates will think you are stupid?

Almost always.
Most of the time.
Sometimes.
Rarely.
Never.
I don't know/can't say.

23: When a T.A. asks a question during discussion section, and you know the answer, do you generally:

raise your hand right away to answer the question?
wait a bit to see who else raises their hands before you raise your own?
not raise your hand?
I don't know/can't say.

24: Please rate how comfortable you are with each of the following topics or techniques covered in CS 61A, choosing ratings ranging from 5 (you are completely comfortable with that topic) to 1 (you don't understand that topic at all).

	`accumulate/reduce`, `map`, and `filter`
	procedures that return procedures
	data-directed programming
	streams
	`set!`
	`set-car!` and `set-cdr!`
	scope of variables (which definition a given variable use refers to)
	inheritance
	other aspects of the object-oriented programming system
	concurrency
	logic programming
	vectors
	memoization
	The meta-circular evaluator
	Why we care about functional programming
	Why we care about object-oriented programming
	Why we care about rule-based and logic programming

25: (The remainder of this survey concerns the MapReduce interface) The MapReduce interface was usable.