Getting Help

In general:

• Email me or Mr. McCullen any time. We're both very accessible.
  
• Come to office hours! You can come to Mr. McCullen's or any TA's consulting hours without prior notice.
• Get help sooner rather than later. Consulting hours get very busy right on the night a project is due, so you're more likely to get all the help you need if you come earlier in the week.
• Think twice before looking stuff up online. You should have all the programming knowledge you need for the labs and the projects from the lectures, examples, and textbook.

During lab:

• Try a few times on your own, ask a neighbor for help (lab assignments are collaborative), then call me over. Don't spend the entire time struggling on your own if you get stuck.

For projects:

• Before asking for help, make sure you have first:
  • read the notes file for the project
  • studied the examples in the course pack
  • reread your notes
  • looked it up in the text book
  • tried doing it another way
  • checked for common bugs
• If you're still stuck, DO ask for help. There's not point wasting hours puzzling over an error when more often than not, we can give you a list of possible causes without a second thought.

If you're struggling:

• Contact me and/or Mr. McCullen as soon as you realize you're in trouble. Everything in this course is cumulative, so falling behind can quickly become disastrous.

Other problems or concerns:

• Email me about lab assignments and grading questions/mistakes. Email Mr. McCullen first for most other problems, including missed project deadlines.