A 13 Year Old Working through Harvard CS50

OK. So we haven't checked in on Harvard CS50 for a while. And I know from Kev that things are going relatively well. So tell me about your journey through Harvard CS50, both last year, where you ended up, where you started this year, and how it's going now.

OK. So I guess I'll start off with last year. Wasn't too focused, um, and I didn't— or I wasn't like, oh yeah, I wasn't focused and I was— I didn't stay on top of my work. But this year, um, well, first of all, Kevin's really awesome. He's been holding me accountable. He's also my mentor, which is awesome. So I did a project from each of the weeks to start just to get refreshed, and now I'm gonna go on to week 7. I left off finishing week 6, so I'm gonna move on to week 7 out of 10. I think, so I'm almost done.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, finally, right? Yeah. Yeah, so I'm gonna move on to week 7 and do the projects and just go from there, I guess.

That's really terrific, Tiara. So yeah, Kev, and you know, to be fair, rather than talk about you not being focused last year, we didn't really have a guide for you towards the end of the year. So you were kind of on your own in the wilderness for a while there.

Um, and I suppose I could have done a better job managing it though, so that was partly my fault.

Got it. Well, I appreciate your willingness to take responsibility. Um, with Kev, do you prefer— you call him Kevin rather than Kev?

Oh, uh, uh, I know his nickname is Kev, but I just never picked up on saying it, I guess. So, okay, Kevin.

But yeah, no problem. Um, yeah, with Kev, because that's what I call him, um, did— how did you start, you know, given that he was new and didn't know you. Did he start by kind of interviewing you, or how did he come up with a game plan for how to get you on track with Harvard CS50?

Well, so first, our first meeting, we had like a little introductory meeting, like maybe the first week of the year, or maybe the second week, just to introduce ourselves because we didn't want to just meet in class, especially because he was my mentor for this year. So we had a little introductory meeting. I told him about my interests like jiu-jitsu and wrestling and reading and stuff. He told me a little bit about himself and where he is right now, so that was really interesting to get to know him. And then he asked where I was, and I admitted that I wasn't too focused and I might need like a little bit of a refresher to keep working this year, and he said that was okay. So he gave me a plan to like just go week by week and refresh myself with that sort of skill. And then we can— and since it was only one project, it wouldn't take too long. So now I'm caught up and I can just keep going. It's only 3 more weeks or 3 more sets, I guess. But that was our plan.

Got it. And so my understanding, to be clear, is that you started over from the beginning, redoing each of the first lessons.

Just one project, one short project from each, so that I could get a refresher of the code and the principles and things like that. So it didn't take as long as it normally would have.

Got it. And were, um, the projects relatively easy to do the second time around?

Yes, easier than last time.

Would you say you understood them better?

Yes.

Um, did Kevin add explanations, or basically what— I guess I'm interested, I'm, you know, I'm very big on, um, how people learn and, uh, learning on your own. And since you were basically learning on your own last spring, and now we have Kev, who is great, I'm interested to know, how is Kevin, uh, what role does he play in your learning at CS50? Does he, like, explain things? Does he teach things? Does he just look over your work? Does he ask questions? What exactly is the role that he plays in your learning?

Uh, first of all, he's always there if I have any questions. Uh, second of all, um, maybe a couple days a week, or weekly, he'll check up on the students in the class while we're on Zoom. So I can go over a project with him there. I've done that a couple of times. And then we've also done like a whole project together. So like maybe if I get stuck, he can help me figure it out in the Socratic way, as he likes to call it. And yeah, he's very, very supportive and helps me figure stuff out.

And I'm very interested in what it means to help you in the Socratic way. Does that mean he basically asks you questions as you go through your project and you explain why you did the project the way you did?

Yes. Um, and instead of just telling me the answer, he tries to like get me to realize it, I guess.

Uh-huh. And do you usually realize it? Are there some pieces that are hard?

I usually realize it. Maybe like once or twice I've had to have help, but It's been going good.

And are you still watching the talks, or did you rewatch the lectures this year?

Um, I rewatched the parts that I needed to, to remember, like, the syntax and the, uh, like, fundamental parts, but I didn't really need to since I had some knowledge of it before. But now that I'm starting a new week that I've never done before, I absolutely will, for sure.

And now that you're kind of going through it the second time, is, uh, The— are the talks easier to understand?

Yes, but also no, because as like you go on in the weeks, the talks or the lectures get a lot more complicated. Because there's stuff that you're dealing with is a lot more complicated. But I'm not sure if how my week is gonna go like that because the set before was Python and now we're moving to like a different area. I think it might be a different language. I'm not sure. So it might be a little more simpler, but like if we were like in the weeks 1 to 4, we were just doing C or 1 to 5, and 4 and 5 were really complicated because like you got really deep into syntax and like all the things you needed to understand sort of. But I think this might be different just because of the difference of the things we're gonna be learning, but I'm not sure.

Got it. What would you say is hardest about taking this course? What's the hardest part?

I think the hardest part are the problem sets. I think because it's easy enough to understand everything in the lecture, but I feel like in the problem sets they kind of amplify that. And at first I didn't really know how to deal with that because it seemed a lot more complicated than the stuff that was shown in the lecture. But I kind of figured out that if you read like the entire thing, at least for the project, it like gave you hints and taught you a little more than just like jumping right into the project after reading the description. And so just understanding that everything else kind of just ties together really helped. And I know that came to mind because I always hear kids saying like, oh, like the stuff they teach us is really easy, but then the Assignments are hard, and then the tests are impossible. And that's what I kind of felt when I was doing— when I was going from the video to the problem sets. But I've managed that a little bit better over the last couple of months.

Got it. Do you think that if anybody wanted to take this course and do well on it, they could?

Yeah, I think so.

Got it. So why do you think— normally, people would think taking Harvard CS50 as a 13-year-old is a big deal. Would you say it's not a big deal at all?

I think a lot of 13-year-olds could just because it's pretty easy to understand and lectures are great. You just need to like stay on top of it and focus. Maybe I wasn't doing that a year ago, but now I'm doing my best to. Yeah, I think so.

Do you think, um, some 13-year-olds would have a hard time, in your words, staying on top of it and focusing?

Yeah, of course. I mean, not everyone's different. I had a hard time with it too, so I guess it just takes time and the right person.

And you had a hard time with it last year, you're saying?

Oh, just staying on top and focus, like we were talking about.

So, but I'm again, because I'm interested in learning, I'm digging in. So Was it the case that you would just not finish your problem sets or not allocate enough time for problem sets or not kind of push through to find the kind of what you needed to do to solve the problem sets? What does not staying on top of it look like? Kind of.

It means that they were hard, like really hard for me. And then once I would finish one or finish watching the lecture, I would like say, oh, good job. Good job, Melanie. Be like, great job, you did that, that was awesome. And then I would like take a break, but because that felt so awesome that I did that, I guess, and then time would go on and I wouldn't realize that it'd been very long. And then when I tried to go to the next thing, I had a hard time going back, I guess. So I think like staying on top of it for me just means not taking breaks and like going after it one by one, just to be done, I guess.

So maybe part of it is immediately or very soon, perhaps within 24 hours after listening to the lecture, you should start the problem set and try to apply the things in the lecture to the problem set before you forget it and it's too difficult, something like that?

Yes, yeah, that's— that, yeah, for sure.

How long does it typically take for you to do a problem set?

Uh, depends on the difficulty, but, um, sometimes it'll take me like an hour and a half or maybe like 2 and a half or 3 hours spread over a couple days. But some of them are a little shorter, like just to get you to understand the basics of the, like, of the syntax and things like that. So maybe like 20, 30 minutes, like just depends.

Is there one problem set per lesson, or are there multiple problem sets per lesson?

There are multiple, and usually it'll go like just understanding the syntax to really, really applying it, and just a lot harder. There will be like 2 to 4, I think, uh, problem sets per lecture. Yes.

Okay, so maybe—

I mean, or there's one problem set per lecture, but then there's a couple different projects in that problem problem set.

I see. And each project might take between 30 minutes to an hour?

Might take between 30 minutes to like 2.5 hours for me, at least. Maybe other people are better at it.

Okay. And to what extent do you, when you get stuck in a problem set, do you, you, do you look it up online? Do you use Google? Do you use GPT? Do you ask Kev? Do you just struggle with it? What tools do you use when you're struggling through a problem set?

Uh, all of the above except for ChatGPT. I don't ask it to give me the answers usually. Maybe if like Kevin's away with someone else, I just ask it to like walk me through the steps or help me understand what I'm supposed to do. Mm-hmm. Yeah, but there's lots of different resources, but Kevin's best because he can Socratically help me walk through, help me walk through it.

Got it. Do you think that you would be prepared, you will be prepared for, say, a final exam? You know, sometimes at the end of courses there's a big exam at the end of the course that requires you to kind of do all the things you did during the course on the final exam. Do you think that you would be prepared or you're on track to be prepared for a final exam?

First of all, I think there is like a final project. And second of all, yes, I think so, especially after I finish the course and learn all the other syntax I need to.

Would you say the syntax itself is not too hard?

You just have to write it down and remember it, I think. And I need to get better at that. It's like better at taking notes.

Would you say—

after a while it sticks.

And would you say that there's a certain amount of kind of cleverness or originality or creativity to solve the projects?

Yes, because you can know the syntax, what you need to know. How it all ties together to do the thing that you're trying to do. Um, I think actually one of the things that you get most from like doing this kind of course is just learning how to think critically, because you gotta think critically to like arrange it and solve the problem, right? It's not just A, B, C, D, E.

And do you find yourself liking to code more the more deeply do you get into it, or liking to code less, or what's your take on the whole adventure?

Uh, when I'm doing good and I find it like, oh, this is easy, I know, I know how to do this, then I love it. But if it's like really hard and I can't solve this and I don't like it, just depends.

Okay, well, um, congrats, and I'm very glad we, we've got Kev helping you this year. And of course I'm proud that you're pushing through this. So, um, look forward to hearing the, uh, completion when you get there.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Happy Sunday.

Happy Sunday. Have a good week. See you later.