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Welcome!
Please take
a moment to tell us a bit about your background with computer science
and/or computer programming. We will use this to help us place you
into an appropriate CS course in the upcoming fall term of 2019.
Thank you!
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HMC CS placement options
Most often, one of these sections is appropriate:
- The CS 5
"green" and CS 5
"gold" sections
are designed for students without CS or programming experience. In addition,
doing well on the AP CS Principles exam flows naturally into cs5 gold or
green. Both sections
cover the same foundational material and provide students with the same
preparation for subsequent CS courses. The "gold" section draws its context
and examples from across engineering, the natural sciences, mathematics, the humanities and the arts.
The "green" section motivates the same material through current problems in the life
sciences and asks students to write programs to solve these problems (e.g.,
determining why certain bacteria cause diseases while others do not, analyzing
DNA to determine if someone is lactose intolerant, etc.).
- The CS 5 "black"
section
is designed for students with about a year of
high-school CS or programming experience (in any language).
Doing well on the AP CS A exam provides placement into cs5 black. This section covers
the same material as in "green" or "gold," but spends less time on topics that will
be familiar to students with some programming experience. "Black"
uses this extra time to explore applications of CS such as
cryptography and data compression, among other topics. Students without the
AP CS A exam who request placement into CS 5 Black will be asked to complete a placement exam when they arrive at HMC. The instructor of CS 5 black will decide on final placements after that. The "black," "green," and "gold" sections prepare students equally well for CS 60.
- The CS 42
course is appropriate for students with significant CS experience
(e.g., two or more years of rigorous high-school or college CS experience).
CS 42 is a
fast-paced introduction to many topics in CS including
models of computation, computability, functional programming, analysis of
programs, software engineering, data structures, and algorithmic techniques.
Because of students' prior experience, the focus is much more on the Computer Science than
the programming.
Students who request placement into CS 42 will be asked to complete a placement exam when they arrive at HMC. The instructor of CS 42 will decide on final
placements after that. CS 42 prepares students to take CS 70, HMC's third CS
course. (Please note that CS 70 also requires sophomore standing; students are
eligble to take CS 70 starting in their second year.)
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