Summer class experience

This summer, I took UC Berkeley’s CS 61A course which was hard as the rumor said, but my journey included more than just academic challenges. It began with a housing issue. I had arranged to stay in a UCB student house, but just before my arrival, the landlord cut my stay short to July 31 instead of August 15, which meant I had to move out before even finishing my course. Moreover, I was worried it might be a scam, so I quickly canceled and had to scramble for new accommodation.

With no place to stay, I had to stay in hotel for 6 days, with sales at $99 a night. It was really expensive. I tried to search for a cheaper option. Fortunately, another CS 61A student, W, offered me a room. To my surprise, he was also a UC Berkeley student, which was a huge benefit since he could give me insights into campus life, dining spots, and local tips.

As I began my summer course in UC Berkeley’s CS 61A, I felt confident. The early lectures covered basic Python concepts like booleans, while loops, and functions—topics I knew well. The homework and projects were manageable, and I finished them early. I was optimistic about getting an A+.

During this time, I explored the campus with W. It was vast and impressive, almost like a small town with magnificient buildings. Since the campus is on a slope, walking around was tiring. I asked W why the university was built on a hill. Why wouldn’t they build on plains? He shrugged and said when people constructed the campus, this hill was probably the only available place for them to build. We also visited some iconic buildings and sculptures donated by alumni decades ago. This whole place is magnificent and historical, which was really amazing. We also checked out local restaurants, dessert store, and stores like Target and Safeway.

Everyday, I would get up, shortly prepare breakfast and get dressed, and take No. 88 or 36 bus with W . Before the lecture, I’d visit a small café in the underground area run by a friendly old lady. I would usually order chocolate chip cookies or muffins as snacks during class. Because I went there so often, that lady reckonized me and would prepare the snacks before I even ordered. It was really kind and considerate of her, remembering me and my preference.

After the one and a half hours of lecture, we would head downhill to the Subway, where I would get the BEAST. Although it was really salty, probably from the chess, I really liked the mix of sausage, beef, lettuce. It was relatively cheap compared with others. The crunchiness of lettuce and bread, softness of meat and cheese, the meaty flavor and freshness from vegetables all entangled in my mouse, creating a symphony of taste.

After that, we would go to the lab or discussion, depending on the day. In fact, there were no real discussions. Most lab and discussion were just about doing homework and projects, which I could easily get bored when I finished my work. After this period finished, it was in the mid afternoon, where we often had relaxation nearby. I would go to the gelato store near campus, and my favorite flavor is tiramisu or, if the store didn’t provide the flavor, coffee. I would just sit outside, eating the dense and rich-flavored ice cream, and watching cars and crowds pass by. Sometimes, we would go to the gym to exercise. W was more into developing his muscle while I just want to keep myself fit, so the climbing and running machine would be my favorite. The above was perhaps the summary of daily life.

During my stay with him, W shared his experience with UC Berkeley. He said to me that he majored in History and Political economy, which startled me very much. I had no idea why he would take computer science when history and politics had nothing to do with STEM. He first told me in a tone like an old professor, saying that every fields were related to each other, even though the combination would seem ridulous, but still existed. Of course, he then said, the reason is to learn new skills, especially when social science required data collection and processing. The programming skill would potentially help him get a job. However, UCB was such a top-notch in STEM and its STEM courses, from W’s articulation, were horrendously hard. He had taken CS 61A for 2 times but had to drop from it because he did so bad that it could greatly affect his GPA. I told him I had a really good foundation on Python. He seemed greatly relieved. I was skeptical about his statement at first. Sure, UCB course was challenging, but how hard could CS 61A, an intro course, be?

As the course continued, I began to see what W meant about its difficulty. Topics like iterators and generators were completely new to me, and I needed to watch videos to understand them. The sample exams was the most daunting; even with the answers, some questions were confusing. I realized this course was very tough and that I needed to be very careful to get an A. I started preparing for the midterm two weeks in advance, working on exam questions and reviewing all my notes. I began attending tutoring sessions to augment my understanding. The stress increased, and there was even a period that I questioned if computer science was right for me. I might as well just quit the course, I thought, perhaps only UCI courses fit me.

Fortunately, I had excellent TAs, tutors, and lecturers. They answered my questions patiently and their encouragement helped me cope with the stress. One tutor inspired me the most. He was a sophomore who had never programmed before taking CS 61A. He practiced past exams multiple times and got his exam score from 50 to 60 and then finally to 90. His hard work motivated me and I believed that I needed to have the same dedication as him and I kept more practicing. Even W was amazed by my dedication when he asked me why I studied hard for this course even though I had relatively good foundation on programming. I told him I wanted to get A+ on this course and also told him about the adamant spirit of that tutor, and he was also inspired to study past exam together with me.

Midterm day finally arrived, and I felt restless as soon as I woke up. The exam was scheduled from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., so I had plenty of time to review. Despite this, I struggled to focus during my practice exams because I was so anxious about the real test. I told W that I would head to school early and walk around. To calm my nerves, I had some Italian spaghetti for lunch and gelato for dessert. I spent most of the time sitting on the grass land, enjoying the warm breeze and cool grass.

As the exam time approached, I went to the assigned classroom. The exam started at 7:03 p.m. I felt prepared for the first question because I had done well on first questions in past exam. But when I flipped the page, my heart nearly stopped. Instead of the expected high-order functions or environment diagrams, the first question was about generators and iterators—topics I had just recently learned. The next page had a question about list operations, another difficult topic for me. I panicked for a few minutes at first, trying to figure out the answers, but then I decided to move on to questions I was more confident about. Most questions were fine, and I could understand all the recursion questions. After finishing those, I went back to previous questions, struggling to remember everything about iterators, generators, and list operations. I spent an hour on those two questions but was still unsure about my answers after the exam ended. I felt devastated by the difficulty and told W, “It’s over. I don’t think I’ll get an A. I might just aim for a B.” Just two days later, W told me our exam scores were out. I hesitated to check, fearing a low score. When I finally opened the email, I was shocked to see that I had scored 61.5 out of 64. At first, I thought it might be a mistake since I did poorly on the first two questions. However, I learned that the class did so poorly that the lecturers had to curve the whole class. I was amazed and utterly happy about my result because it meant that I could have 20 points reduction on the final exam, which meant I have more change to get an A+ in the exam.

After the midterm, I felt less stressed about the UCB course and had more time to enjoy life. I met a girl who was from community college in San Jose. Every day, she woke up early to catch a train to UCB. She struggled with her classes and stayed at UCB until 9 p.m. for extra tutoring. She complaint to us about facing harassment during her commute, which worried us. We suggested she try to return home earlier, but she said the TAs only posted their schedules in person, not online. We decided to ask the TAs if they could offer online tutoring for her. They agreed, which helped her avoid returning home late. She was grateful and started spending more time with us.

As we got to know her, I learned that she was from mainland China, like W and me. We formed a small study group to help her with programming. She was not good at programming compared with W. However, she was hard-working and patient in learning new knowledge. She would repeatedly ask us questions until she fully understood the concept.

One time, we enjoyed lunches together at an Italian restaurant. She told us about her background. Her father owned two hotels, providing her family with a good income. She had even thought about inheriting the family business.

“Then why did you come to America instead of China?” W asked.

The girl then explained, sadly, about COVID-19 pandemic that had hurt her family’s business, causing financial problems. She realized she couldn’t depend on her family and needed to find her own way. That’s why she came to the U.S., hoping to work in the quantization industry. She took CS 61A to gain programming skills that would help her stand out in job applications. “Every field needs CS skills these days,” W said. “Yep, that’s the trend,” I agreed.

Soon, the final exam day arrived. W and I decided to get to campus early and I went to the cafe downstairs with W. W had rarely been here and was immediately attracted to a coin jar for donations. The jar had coins from different countries glued to it—Israel, Japan, China, Sweden. An older lady explained that she had been collecting coins from tourists for years, just for fun. We examined each coin with amazement, noting the unique designs that represented different cultures. I was impressed by W’s observation since I had ordered about 20 brownies and hadn’t even noticed the jar.

The final exam started at 7 p.m. It turned out to be relatively easy, focusing mainly on Scheme and SQL. Although these were new topics for me, they felt familiar after hours of practices.

After finishing final exam, stepping out of the classroom into the crisp evening air at 10 p.m., I felt a deep sense of achievement from completing the challenging course. After 3 days, I got an email saying I scored 89 out of 92, meaning I could get an A for sure, which greatly relieved me. W initially had A-, but his final score was so close to the minimum requirement of an A. He requested a regrade on the exam, and sure enough, the lecturers gave some points on his final exam, and he finally, for the first time, got an A in CS 61A. He was greatly motivated by this and told me that he wanted to take additional CS course like 61B. “Go ahead,” I encouraged. The girl, however, didn’t perform well on the exam and ultimately got a B-. It was nevertheless her first time to code, and she thanked us for helping her out because without our help, she might as well get a C- or even worse.

Overall, it had been a tough but incredible experience, unlike anything I had encountered at UCI. I made new friends, traveled to another city, and lived there for two months. More importantly, I gained confidence in tackling difficult challenges, knowing that my positivity could help me overcome any obstacles.

Yet, at the night before I left, I couldn’t fell asleep when I realized that I had to say goodbye to everything I had enjoyed: the campus, the course, the TAs, the Italian restaurants, the gelato store, Safeway, and the buses. I would miss them very much after leaving.

After I arrived irvine, I got the letter that notified me that I got an A+. I smiled and knew I had achieved my goals.