This is probably the most important course you'll take

tl;dr: Dr. Boady all the way if at all possible. I've TA'd this course numerous times with numerous different instructors, including one term where I was assigned to both Dr. Nowak and Dr. Boady's sections of the course at the same time. It was kind of rough because whenever someone approached me to ask for help with the homework or go over a quiz or project, I'd have to remember to ask whether they had Boady or Nowak as the two versions of the course are very different while still ultimately covering the same material. I've also helped CS260 students in both Nowak's version and everyone else's version of the course in terms in which I was assigned to other courses, so I'm familiar with the course as taught by various instructors and the differences among them. I sort of mentioned this l...read more

Zybooks is horrible and made the course more difficult than it needed to be. Awful textbook and didn't help much with the material at all. The course would be much better without it

Pathetically easy. It's so easy you'll get an A+ and learn nothing. It's so pathetically easy that your grades in every course after this one will suffer because it didn't actually do it's job as a prerequisite. The job of a prerequisite class is to teach you important material that can be built upon in future classes. Well, CS171 doesn't do that. If you know how to program, this class is a boring waste of $70 rehashing material you already know. If you don't know how to program, this class is a boring waste of $70 where you learn how to memorize Python syntax, but not actually how to use anything in a useful way. If you don't know how to program, then every single CS class after this one will be a living hell because of how useless the material in this class is. Don't worry, you'll get an...read more

If you actually want to learn computer programming, don't do it here. ZyBooks is a waste of money. There's better material on Google to learn how to code for free. If you're a CS major who knows how to code, RIP. Take your easy A and get it over with. If you're a CS major that doesn't know how to code, take free coding classes online at the same time. Take CS171 to get through the prereq. Take online coding classes to actually learn the material so you don't fail your later courses.