Had taken AP CSA before. Most students seemed to not care so the median for midterms was pretty low but if you care, this professor also does and took feedback and actively sought to change how the course was taught. Didn't really have to work too hard. Don't get complacent though and study before midterms and such.

This was the most positive experience I've ever had in a programming class. Granted, that's not hard to achieve given the atrocity that is Michael Lindstrom. This class was a great balance between learning really cool concepts and rigor. When the course ended, I felt very confident in my programming abilities. I'm writing this review a year after I took this course and I'm still surprised by how much of the material I retained. I can have a substantive conversation with my CS peers about inheritance, polymorphism, and algorithms/data structures 101. Unlike Lindstrom, Chu actually spends time letting the concepts sink in. I literally cannot tell you what I learned in PIC 10A, but can go on an on about PIC 10B.

This course was very organized, with 8 weekly homework, one midterm and one final. Professor Chu was awesome! She always stopped to ask anyone if they had questions and was extremely helpful and friendly during office hours.

But don't let the reviews fool you. This class was NOT a low-hanging fruit. I felt this course was rather difficult for an intro class. I managed to get an A only because I had programming experience in high school and had to study really hard for it..

The class as I took it is graded by 8 100 point Homeworks, 1 midterm, and 1 final. (participation is 1% of grade). As far as I can tell this professor is the best professor to take for program in computing that being said she was still not great. The midterm took me about 8-9 hours ("designed to be 1 hour) and the final took me 17 hours ("designed to be 3 hours"). My particular TA was not the best at teaching but she was very kind and helped me tremendously with the homework. There was 1 week to complete each homework.. but do not start it late it took me 3-4 days at least. The teacher spoke too fast for me personally so I would watch the recorded lectures and take notes from there. Basically, no collaboration is allowed as all coding needs to be original which makes it hard to ask peers for help. I feel like the people who did the best either had prior experience or just were inclined to computer science. I was not one of those people and it took all my time but still was able to pass. The Homework is %70 percent of the grade and is what basically determines your grade so they are your best bet at succeeding in the class.

I took this class with 7 years of programing experience in C++, and yet somehow this professor was so bad at teaching and explaining that I got a C on the midterm and on the final. Not going to lecture would probably be more useful than going.

Grading Scheme:
40% Homework
30% Quizzes
9% Midterm
20% Final
1% Course Evaluation

Personally I didn't watch lecture because the professor read off of the slides. I also didn't feel a need to attend discussion. The slides were concise but explained concepts pretty well. The homework assignments were pretty fair and took around 6 hours a week on average. My advice: Start early on the homework in case you run into problems. The professor lacked clarity and did not specify everything she wanted in each homework spec which resulted in a lot of students getting points docked off on the first few homework assignments. Consequently, many students complained and got some of these points back, and future homework assignments were graded more fairly. The timed quizzes were super difficult and theoretical at first, but the professor listened to feedback and made the quizzes more doable (as long as you looked over the slides). The midterm and final were 24 hours and were doable as well.

I have no idea about programming before coming to this class. As such, it is very confusing for me starting from week 3. One recommendation is to constantly reread the slides after lecture and prepare questions. Please do read lectures and her examples before attempting assignments as they are long. Dr. Chu is very nice and helpful, and the tests can’t be more fair! I would surely recommend her to everyone

Disclaimer: I did not take PIC 10A at UCLA and transferred. No major complaints about Professor Chu. She had a bit of an accent and I was a bit confused as a result in the beginning but was no problem in the long run. She was super accommodating and I felt that she taught pretty well. I messed up on the final which is the reason why I got an A- instead of an A but it you have good understanding of the material, you should be good to go. I didn't attend lectures and TA sections midway in the quarter because I had other obligations which made this class an uphill battle for the final 6 weeks but still definitely doable. There weren't too many new topics in PIC 10B surprisingly.

*Covid Version*

I didn't take PIC 10A before. Instead, I took CS31. Though CS31 is harder than PIC 10A, there are some materials not covered by CS31 but taught in PIC 10A. Then professor Chu would assume that everyone in the class already knows about them.

The projects are highly related to her class materials, which made them easier. There were 2 projects harder than I thought, but going to her and TA's office hours really helped a lot.

The midterm and final were 24h format. You are required to answer multiple-choice questions, short coding questions, and a longer coding question. The tests were designed for 2-3 hours.

~ Covid-19 quarter ~
Challenging class but worthwhile.
Expect weekly quizzes (4-5 questions each). She gives 30 minutes to complete it and you can take it anytime from 5 PM Monday to 5 PM Tuesday.
All exams are open-note. She posts demos, lectures, and notes on CCLE.
Very helpful in office hours. TAs are also a great source to go to for homework help.
7 total homework assignments, with a week to finish each of them.
Our final was mandatory, but she gave us 24 hours to do it. Open notes and compilers allowed.