I don’t think he plans on not doing assignments- he just isn’t grading them. Pre-exam assignments are mostly there to a) help students avoid procrastinating on learning the material and b) insure against bad luck or nerves on exam day.
Jack is mostly correct. I am planning to do assignments, however my goal is to do these later in the program where I feel the most value will come out. I’ve done light programming as a hobby for years, so I’m not unfamiliar with the approach, my goal is to maximize my theoretical basis of knowledge, not necessarily to become a superstar programmer (which I believe comes after years of deliberate practice, not necessarily through college anyhow). As for evaluative basis, most of the final exams I’ll be writing are at least 50%, so there is at least an argument to be made that they are substantive and not peripheral to the content.
Vaniver is also correct about spaced repetition. My reason for taking this approach is to make my process more flexible early on. Once I figure out the best methods to teach myself, it will be safer to switch to doing more classes in parallel where I can get the long-term benefits of spaced repetition. As for the grading measurement, that’s a completely reasonable critique. I hope to explore the tradeoffs of this approach compared to an actual MIT program and discuss that, since there will inevitably be places my methods leave weaker than a traditional program.
I don’t think he plans on not doing assignments- he just isn’t grading them. Pre-exam assignments are mostly there to a) help students avoid procrastinating on learning the material and b) insure against bad luck or nerves on exam day.
Jack is mostly correct. I am planning to do assignments, however my goal is to do these later in the program where I feel the most value will come out. I’ve done light programming as a hobby for years, so I’m not unfamiliar with the approach, my goal is to maximize my theoretical basis of knowledge, not necessarily to become a superstar programmer (which I believe comes after years of deliberate practice, not necessarily through college anyhow). As for evaluative basis, most of the final exams I’ll be writing are at least 50%, so there is at least an argument to be made that they are substantive and not peripheral to the content.
Vaniver is also correct about spaced repetition. My reason for taking this approach is to make my process more flexible early on. Once I figure out the best methods to teach myself, it will be safer to switch to doing more classes in parallel where I can get the long-term benefits of spaced repetition. As for the grading measurement, that’s a completely reasonable critique. I hope to explore the tradeoffs of this approach compared to an actual MIT program and discuss that, since there will inevitably be places my methods leave weaker than a traditional program.