OMSCS — Simulation

A lot of the Avengers movies are filmed in Atlanta.

Overview

Per the OMSCS Central reviews, I was excited by this class’ high rating and low time commitment. Unfortunately I was eventually underwhelmed. It felt like some of my high school math classes where you spend most of your time memorizing equations and pushing numbers around rather than deeply understanding any math. It’s possible I was underprepared for the class, since calculus and statistics are prerequisites. But if that’s true, then I think the course is mis-advertised since the professor emphasizes that the course is self-contained. The first two weeks is a primer about the math and probability required for the rest of the course, but if it is the first time you are seeing the material, you will likely find it inadequate.

Practical Tips

• The class will be easy, even trivial, if you have strong probability and statistics fundamentals. It is difficult if you do not.
• When I took the course, the lecture videos were released on a weekly schedule. That experience can be inconvenient if you are used to many other OMSCS courses where you can watch lectures at your own pace.
• The TAs are the best I’ve ever experienced. They will answer any question you have and Professor Goldsman is also active on Piazza as well.
• A good cheat sheet can make all the difference for the exams, which are the bulk of your grade in this class. Honestly, a thorough enough cheat sheet can act as a complete crutch for not understanding the material. You will see lots of example problems through the lectures, homework, and practice exams. Theoretically, if you had all of them worked out on a cheat sheet, you can identify which exam question most closely resembles which problem you’ve seen before, and then plug-and-play to get the correct answer. While this isn’t the most advisable strategy for deeply understanding the concepts, in my opinion, common sense and a basic understanding of the material will only get you so far. Many of the questions will feel like obscure trivia.
• If you’re comfortable with Latex, that can be a good choice for making your cheat sheet since you can quickly edit it. Fill it out as you go along with the lectures. My strategy was simply writing very small (you get a limited number of cheat sheets).
• Questions about Arena are more often common sense. Some can feel obscure (like what section does this particular block belong to), but in general, don’t waste your time jotting Arena notes on your cheat sheet.
• The practice exams are the absolute best bang for your buck study material for the actual exams, and good material for your cheat sheet. The actual homework is trivial and the exam questions rarely matched example problems shown in lectures.
• This was the first time this class had a project worth 5% of your grade. It felt like an afterthought and a little haphazardly put together. Grading was extremely lenient though.
• This was the first class that I felt getting an A was rather difficult, since so much of your grade depends on the exams. The cutoff for an A has historically been in the high 80s. Otherwise, the cutoff for a B is very low, like 60. Even if you do very poorly on the first exam, if Professor Goldsman sees improvement in your exam scores, he will likely give you a B.