CSC111 is a mandatory course for engineering students. It would be nowhere as easy as it is without the amazing professor that teaches it, Bill Bird.

The course focuses on the C programming language. There are labs that meet weekly that feature a number of problems you have to pass to get a full grades for that lab. Also, there are infrequent assignments that build off major topics taught in class worth a pretty good chunk of the grade. The rest of the marks go into midterms (which were very, very easy) and the final exam (not much harder than the midterms).

Bill Bird is an amazing professor that works to make lectures as engaging as possible. His explanations and diagrams of otherwise very abstract concepts made a lot of the course material much easier to understand.

This course is significantly easier if you already have some background in coding.

For someone who has never programmed this course was very difficult for me and others I know. It seems like the assignments are oriented to people who have coded before or else they take anywhere from 6-10 hours.

I liked Bill as a person, he is reasonable and funny. Lectures sometimes went way off the rails with random tangents that made it difficult for someone like me who was struggling. I only went to office hours once (first semester of Uni I was scared) and it was to look at my final before grades went out. Bill was somewhat condescending when I was asking him questions. Overall, nice guy but has a bit of a god complex.

Code code code. Trace trace trace.

Bill Bird is a great professor to have for this class. He is great at thoroughly explaining concepts and keeps lectures fun and interesting. I had never coded before taking this class, don't worry if you are in the same boat.

Practice writing code to become more comfortable. Before an exam, try to make up a problem similar to one showed in class, and then write code to solve it. Do this multiple times with all concepts you think may appear on the test.

If you have no background in CSC I would recommend getting Bird as your prof, doubt I would have passed with a different prof, very good and in depth examples, if you have no CSC background do NOT miss any lectures.

Go to all lectures and try all assignments by yourself before asking anyone else for help / a push in the right direction.

C is quite difficult for someone who has had no prior experience in programming.

Take CSC110 if possible since it's taught in Python

This is an essential course for learning datatypes, pointers, and structures for C++. Bill Bird did a great job of teaching with real-time examples; though the content could get boring at points, he did a great job of keeping the lectures engaging.

Put lots of effort into assignments - these are the best way to learn. Don't worry too much about taking notes in lecture; it's more important to understand the concepts.

My first experience coding. We learned basic functions and datatypes in C. Hausi's lectures were a little boring but still informative.

Most learning will be done outside of lectures. C syntax is a pain but there are plenty of relevant samples online to help with this course's assignments.