Overview
   FAQ is an acronym that stands for Frequently Asked Questions, and, as that name implies, such documents are commonly used to collect answers to questions which are asked often.
   In a computer science course, the same questions tend to come up over and over. This page presents those commonly asked questions that are most likely to be of interest to all students in the course. If you have an idea for something that you would like to see on this page, please let me know by e-mail at mike.gildersleeve@unh.edu.

• Do you hold review sessions before exams?
• What should I do if I have to miss a class?

Do you hold review sessions before exams?
   No, I do not hold specifically allocated review sessions before exams. There are really two basic types of review sessions. In one, the instructor prepares what amounts to a “Best Of” lecture and just repeats things that have already been covered in lecture. In the other, the instructor sets aside an hour or two of lecture time and allows students to ask whatever questions they might have with regards to the exam material; if there aren’t enough questions to fill the allotted time, everyone goes home early. (And since everyone is fully aware that fewer questions means less time they have to stay in class, there is often a negative peer pressure on those who do ask questions during such a session.)
   I don’t really see either approach as a productive use of lecture time. With the former approach, most students inevitably find that the majority of the review material is stuff they already know and regret having wasted their time on the review session. And the latter approach can be much more efficiently handled by simply starting each and every lecture with the query “Does anyone have any questions before I begin?” (Sound familiar? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge!)
   So as I see it, every lecture can be a review session if you want it to be. However, I’d rather leave it up to the students to state what they specifically wish me to review when they specifically wish me to review it. It just seems to make more sense that way!

What should I do if I have to miss a class?
   Over several years of teaching, I have noticed that attendance in lectures overwhelmingly correlates to grades; those students who attend lecture regularly tend to get the higher grades, and those who miss lectures frequently tend to get the lower grades, whether I explicitly consider attendance when grading or not.
   Therefore, I strongly recommend that you make every effort possible to make it to lecture. However, life is complicated, and I realize that it is not always possible to make it to lecture.
   If you must miss a lecture, it certainly doesn’t hurt to drop me a quick note by e-mail letting me know. However, please realize that you are responsible for making up the missed material on your own. It is simply not practical for me to repeat an entire lecture for one individual, regardless of their reason for having missed it.
   When you must miss a lecture, your primary concern should be to fill in the gap in your notes. A complete set of notes will be much more helpful than a partial set when you settle down to study for an exam. Since I don’t provide copies of my lecture notes (for a variety of reasons, foremost amongst which is the fact that they are written to keep me on track and do not necessarily reflect what I would expect a student to have in their notes at the end of a lecture), you will need to get the notes from someone else in the class. Since every student’s perspective of a lecture is different, you may even find it helpful to get notes from several of your classmates and combine them. If you initially photocopy their notes for convenience, I strongly recommend that you copy them over into your own notebook by hand; you are much more likely to absorb the material this way.
   In addition to filling the gap in your notes, I also strongly recommend that you pay particular attention to any reading associated with the missed lecture. Doing, or redoing, this reading especially carefully will likely be helpful in filling in any gaps in your understanding and the notes you have just copied.
   If, after you have copied the notes from at least one of your classmates and done a careful pass through any associated readings, you have specific questions about the material you have missed, I will be happy to meet with you to provide the answers you are lacking.