This class was okay. To do well in this course, I highly recommend doing the extra credit as much as possible. The quizzes were a mixed bag of questions. I recommend to always try to take a look at the presentation slides that Professor Morrison goes over. This is the foundation to other CS classes so it's always good to practice coding in Java on quiz content to do well on the quizzes.

I took this course with Prof Xi but it does not matter as she only teaches lecture. Professor Morrison runs the entire course. Best advice is collect as many points as you can by doing Extra Credits.

I hate this material and the way it is taught. She seems nice enough but the lack of actual code in class makes it really annoying to do the homeworks.

Overall, I walked out of this course feeling like I actually learned something. Out of the courses I took, this one was one of my favorites. Prof. Morrison is great and good at explaining many tough concepts to grasp. The course itself was challenging, but you're given a lot of opportunity for extra credit to ensure that A. Personally, this was my introduction to Java and data structures, and I was still able to end with an A.
If you're like me and are new to Java, I'd recommend learning and practicing Java outside of the classroom. Otherwise, the beginning of the class might feel a little fast.
Great course and I'd recommend it if you need to fulfill a requirement. I do not think it is worth taking "just for fun".

#tCFS25

DO THE EXTRA CREDIT, she offers alot of it which helps yours grade so much. If you lack experience with java, she offered a little class on Fridays to gain more practice because it can be hard to go right into writing java without already knowing it.

The odd quizzes are just coding and they're open book so it's typically easy to pass them but the even quizzes are mcq and my best recommendation would be to review the non class slides that she did not go over and that'll help.

Work on the hw as early as possible to get the extra credit and to also just get it out of the way so you have time to do other stuff.

The TAs are a hit or miss but just find a good one in labs and use them for check offs.

DO THE EXTRA CREDIT PLEASE!

Some of the older reviews make this class sound insanely hard, but I can definitely say the class is way better now. The grading is incredibly forgiving with large amounts of extra credit available all the time (submitting assignments early, extra credit labs) which means as long as you submit every assignment a couple days early you're pretty much guaranteed an A. Sometimes the in-lab quizzes were annoying, but there's more than enough extra credit + quiz retakes to make up for it. On the other hand, some of the assignments could be frustrating since the professor didn't really show concrete coding examples in lecture after we finished the "learning java" unit. If you go to lab/office hours though, the TAs are pretty nice about helping.

Overall I would say this class is okay. The teaching is very confusing and you must do a lot of work outside of class if you really care about understanding the material (this is very important for CS majors). Her teaching in lectures is very quick and she will often breeze over very important topics. She also will not show code and syntax examples in class, only pseudocode which is tricky if you don't have java experience. Overall this class is an easy A- or A. There is so much extra credit offered so as long as you stay on top of your work you should excel. Do not worry when you get really low grades on the multiple choice exams, everyone does, your grade will be saved by the extra credit.

I didn't actually have her class. I had the other session with Datar, but thank goodness Prof Morrison recorded her lectures because I couldn't understand a thing from Datar. She goes through content fast, but she does provide clear examples that help with understanding. Try to take her class, unless there's an actual better professor for the course.

Briana Morrison herself is great. She's enjoyable to speak to and tries to help students. Also offers a lot of extra credit, which you should always do. With that being said, she spends over half the lecture answering student questions, and the other half reading off a powerpoint slideshow that doesn't do a great job explaining. This class throws you into Java, and if you have no previous Java experience, you're screwed. The TAs are barely any help, they think giving you any type of help is equivalent to flat out giving you answers. If you ask them for help, they'll just ask you questions to try and get you to think with no direction and leave you even more confused. There's also too many assignments a week to handle and if you miss more than 1 quiz, hw assignment, and lab due to extenuating circumstances, good luck to your grade!

This class is essentially a free A if you stay on top of your homework early to earn the extra credit. During my semester, there was more than 6% of extra credit available, making an A very attainable. Toward the end of the class, the workload ramps up quickly, so don’t put things on the back burner for too long. If you manage your time well throughout the year, you won’t even need to take a final, which can free up more time for your other courses.

Professor Morrison is great—very enthusiastic about DSA—so pay attention in lectures and use online resources to refresh your memory. All in all, if you approach the coursework strategically, this class should be a relatively stress-free path to an A.