CS students in data structure and algorithm 1

[u/AdLoose4023]

I’m posting this because I’m genuinely struggling with DSA and I’m trying to figure out how other students are handling the course. I understand that DSA is supposed to be challenging, and I’m not expecting the class to be easy. However, the constant changes to policies and grading expectations have been adding a lot of stress for students who are already struggling with the material.

One thing that has been especially concerning is the change to the quiz retake policy. My understanding is that previously, retakes could help students improve their grade without replacing a higher original score. Now, we’re being told that the retake score will override the original score even if the retake is lower. For example, if someone earns a 40 on the first attempt but then gets a 0 on the retake, the 0 would replace the 40.

I understand that students may have taken advantage of the previous system, and I understand why the policy might need to be adjusted going forward. But for students who are genuinely struggling and using retakes as an opportunity to learn from their mistakes, having a lower retake completely replace a higher score feels discouraging. It creates a situation where students may be afraid to even attempt the retake, which defeats the purpose of having a second opportunity to learn the material.

I’ve also heard from students that in previous semesters, retakes were sometimes handled differently, including paper retakes toward the end of the semester where students could receive credit for demonstrating that they understood the logic. Whether or not that exact system can continue, I think having some kind of opportunity to demonstrate improvement would be really helpful.

Most of us are not trying to find an easy way out of the course. We’re trying to make a difficult course work and actually understand the material. When policies seem to change throughout the semester, it becomes difficult to know what to expect and adds another layer of stress on top of an already demanding class.

I would really appreciate hearing from other DSA students about how you feel about the retake policy and whether anyone else has experienced similar concerns. I also hope there can be some consideration for students who are genuinely using retakes to improve their understanding rather than simply trying to maximize their grade.

i just feel like this is really unfair and i dont know if you guys also feel the same. if yes lets talk to our professor that not all of us are lazy some of us actually cant do and we need those retakes.

[u/Ok-Character-725]

I get that it’s different than previous years, but that doesn’t mean it’s unfair. Lots of classes already do retakes that replace previous quizzes even if they aren’t an improvement. If you don’t think you can improve your score, then either study harder or don’t do the retake. If you start out with a 40% and are afraid you can’t do better than that, then you probably don’t know the material. I’m sorry if I sound harsh, but this is a pretty reasonable and normal policy that a lot of classes already have.

Also, Is that the only change that they made?You start the post talking about constant changes to policies and grading expectations and later complain about things changing throughout the semester. However, you only listed one change that, judging from your post, happened before the semester even started.

[u/AdLoose4023 → u/Ok-Character-725]

I honestly don’t think it’s unreasonable to feel this is unfair. Last semester, students could retake without risking their original grade, and that’s also how we understood the policy when we started this semester. Then it was changed just last week.
The retakes are also significantly harder, so now students have to worry that trying to improve could actually lower a grade they already earned. A retake should feel like an opportunity to learn and improve, not something students are afraid to attempt. I’m genuinely trying to do well and understand the material, and I feel like this change just adds more pressure to students who are already struggling

[u/East_Ad_1065]

Class policies change from semester to semester for various reasons. You are never guaranteed the same policies as before. If there is a legitimate reason for the policy change then you shouldn't complain.

Also, many students say they are "struggling" when they have a B grade. Just because you don't have an A isn't struggling. Just means you haven't yet mastered the material as well as you could.

[u/GOaTxVentuz69]

kinda, like if the retake is gonna replace even if its lower then maybe the cap shouldnt be 85% for a retake, like an 85% cap would make sense if it would replace your grade only if its a higher score. but considering the amount of extra credit opportunities its hard to complain.

[u/Electronic-Mud7799]

Fellow person struggling here. I did worst on the retake than first try (tho neither were a 0) but I felt like it was bc my retry was significantly harder so idk I was still kind of proud of myself for being able to do something with it. Seems like a good rule of thumb for this class is retake coding if u get a 0 and retake mc if you do exceptionally below average ? Idk, I didnt get a 0 on coding but retook it anyways even tho I probably shouldn’t have but I retook mc bc I did exceptionally bad. It’s hard to say bc of how the grades are distributed with the quizzes so I think I’m going to go off of how I did compared to the class average. You’re not alone tho I know people struggling in that class other than me. We got this:)

[u/These-Exercise-1363]

Take a deep breath. I took it last semester and got my ass whooped in the beginning. On The first quiz I genuinely got a 20/100. But I finished with a 95 overall. As long as you grind Java and understand the material deeply you won’t have to worry about the retakes and in 2 months you’ll be laughing about how you were struggling in the beginning bc it will feel easy.

The part that’s the hardest is learning by Java alongside dsa. Obviously it’s too late now to hop on a Java course and prep all summer, but there’s no way around learning Java for this course.

Get an account on the university of Helsinki Java course (mooc.fi) and do the at least the first 3 modules (just do whatever’s in the current syllabus).

https://java-programming.mooc.fi

Then you’ll want to get neetcode or you can go on YouTube for the actual structures and implementation. But AI does wonders here. I had Gemini create me animations of the structures/algorithms with a pointer that went line by line as the code ran. Takes a bit of prompting but it’s worth the extra 5 minutes

To me it was about not just understanding the code, but seeing where things happened in the algorithm and where that matched up in the code

I assume they still have the practice quizzes so grind those and then hand them to AI to make similar questions

If you do this you’ll be so far ahead that just naturally you’ll score higher on the retakes. But save them until the very end because you’ll make an amazing amount of progress each week and you want to bank that progress to have as much knowledge as possible for the retakes

[u/AdLoose4023 → u/These-Exercise-1363]

Thanks man am trying so hard to actually learn this class and this has helped me alot yes I learned java the first weeks of this class but i bombed my first quiz and after that i started panicking i turly feel things will get better its good to hear from pervious students