This is a thoroughly unpleasant course, mainly because its a product of Dr. Jipping's affinity for doling out pointless and infuriating assignments. The second half of the course is focused exclusively on the Intel x86 ASM programming language, which is beyond infuriating to work with. The time commitment required to complete assembly exercises and machine problems is highly disproportionate to their value.

Boolean logic (Gates and transistors), Computer organization and architecture (Memory, ALU, CPU, registers, I/O, machine code, etc.), and assemblers (Intel x86 ASM).

Enthusiastic, kind, and willing to help.

Find people to work with, visit the CS help center often, and get a head start on assignments.