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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Mathematical Thinking in Computer Science by University of California San Diego

4.4
stars
2,243 ratings

About the Course

Mathematical thinking is crucial in all areas of computer science: algorithms, bioinformatics, computer graphics, data science, machine learning, etc. In this course, we will learn the most important tools used in discrete mathematics: induction, recursion, logic, invariants, examples, optimality. We will use these tools to answer typical programming questions like: How can we be certain a solution exists? Am I sure my program computes the optimal answer? Do each of these objects meet the given requirements? In the online course, we use a try-this-before-we-explain-everything approach: you will be solving many interactive (and mobile friendly) puzzles that were carefully designed to allow you to invent many of the important ideas and concepts yourself. Prerequisites: 1. We assume only basic math (e.g., we expect you to know what is a square or how to add fractions), common sense and curiosity. 2. Basic programming knowledge is necessary as some quizzes require programming in Python....

Top reviews

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Mar 25, 2019

The teachers are informative and good. They explain the topic in a way that we can easily understand. The slides provide all the information that is needed. The external tools are fun and informative.

AM

Feb 27, 2021

It is a great course! teachers explain everything with care. While providing lectures there are some popup ques that verify whether you understood that lecture or not. Overall, a great experience.

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351 - 375 of 515 Reviews for Mathematical Thinking in Computer Science

By Jasvin M

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May 21, 2020

Professor Alexander Shen's way of teaching and passion was really fun to see and although there weren't as many particular algorithms and such to directly apply in Computer Science, it was a good starting point to the specialization.

By Karthikeyan G

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Aug 20, 2018

Good course.

I gave a 4-star instead of 5 just because of the pace of the lessons. felt it could be bit slower and with more examples, specially in sections related to logic(if-then-else, reductio ad absurdum & permutations & cycles).

By Abhinav K

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May 17, 2020

The Interactive Puzzles are the way forward in such kind of Educational Platforms. Having some prior experience in Data structures and Algorithms , I was impressed by the relevance of the material discussed and the context provided.

By Ujjwal P 1

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Jul 5, 2020

Nice course however in the final weeks a more animated explanation would have made it perfect because a lot of text sometimes makes thing boring.. any way nice to learn new stuff also that 15-puzzle was the best of em' all

By Anton V

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Jul 16, 2020

Some of the logical explanations could have been better. One is sometimes left with the feeling that although the presented results are correct, the logical reasoning behind it is not sufficiently explained.

By Anushka G

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Jul 5, 2020

The course was great i just faced some difficulty in writting python codes( as i am a beginner in pyton) for the last few quizes,i just hoped that may be there could be some videos explaining such codes.

By Alina M

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Mar 14, 2022

a lot of it was hard to understand but it was nice to learn through the puzzles. i was completely lost during the honors content, and i thought we weren't well-prepared for the programming assignments

By DANIEL A

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Nov 5, 2020

Tiene muy buenos ejercicos para la introducción a las matemátcias, y los ejemplos son muy bien explicados, la parte que te hace programar en Pythton es de lo más interesante. Vale mucho el esfuerzo

By Praveen K R

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Oct 19, 2018

The course is structured well but we need more explanation for the last week lecture. And more topics inside logic section. The assignment had really helped me in understanding the course.

Thank You

By Kristen P

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Jan 27, 2020

I applaud the instructors for their efforts in explaining the concepts as they could be abstract and hard to explain in words! More examples to illustrate the concepts will be even more helpful!

By Gavesh J

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Nov 30, 2020

The course is good made me think logically, good as a starting course start fast-finish fast and there you have the warm-up, though you need some knowledge of python for completing this course

By Habib H S

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Apr 26, 2019

Contents are very good for starting.....

But the Teachers way of explaining is not up to the mark. I need to search in youTube or google for understanding any topic even watching the videos.

By Omar A

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Mar 4, 2024

quizes: 5/5 readings: 4.5/5 vedio: -2000/5 The explanations in the videos weren't good at all. Maybe there will be better content in later courses in this specialization, but we'll see.

By RAKESH S

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Sep 20, 2021

The Lectures were pretty clear and concept oriented. Yet there were some topics which aren't much clear, but still the whole course is pretty well arranged and good in explaining

By Karan S

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Apr 14, 2020

though i stuck somewhere but mentors was always there to assist you. really found this course interesting and very helpful. solved so much of tricky puzzles, Good course

By ANGELO J C A

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Nov 3, 2020

The knowledge is guaranteed¡, this course will train the ability of solving problems using algorithms, also it teaches you how to "translate" problems to mathematics.

By Kharissa F S

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Jun 5, 2019

I loved the puzzles! Very interactive and made the course more enjoyable. Would love to see more puzzles as they can help reinforce the ideas explained in the course.

By Mohta R S

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Jun 28, 2020

Great course gives you an algorithmic touch Do this specialization before doing the DSA specialisation

Get comfortable with python syntax before starting this.

By ss S

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May 22, 2020

Alexander Chen gave a hard time in last week, but i liked how in his lectures there were numerous cunning pop ups which made it impossible to get distracted

By Andrea M

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Apr 10, 2020

Instructors are very knowledgeable and the lessons are usually helpful, but it's common for the explanations to contain errors or be unclear in some way.

By Dwija B

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Jun 19, 2020

The course was extremely helpful and easy to follow. The inclusion of interactive puzzles made the course more interesting and urged me to learn more.

By Aniruddha S

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Jan 17, 2022

Had some difficulty understanding concepts. But teaching style, and quizzes were really helpful to reinforce concepts, and improve thinking ability.

By Toral S

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Apr 27, 2020

The course contents were excellent, well designed. But towards the end of the course, things became confusing. Reviewing videos did not help.

By Jiahan X

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Nov 8, 2020

Overall it is good. The courses in the last week, however, are not connected well with the quiz and thus the quiz is very challenging

By Phani S U

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May 20, 2020

Lectures have a piece of great knowledge about the subject but they lack a bit to explain it fluently.

Great course though. Enjoyed