Announcements

Questions

Please post questions about 6.01 on Piazza. We will do our best to respond promptly.

Final Exam: Information and Review Materials

The final exam will be held on Tuesday, 21 May, from 1:30-4:30pm on Johnson Track.

You may refer to any printed materials that you bring to the exam, and you may use a simple calculator. You may not use computers, phones, music players, or similar devices.

The following review materials are available to help you prepare:

We will hold one review session (time and date TBD).

Midterm 2: Information and Review Materials

Midterm 2 will be on 17 April, from 7:30-9:30pm. You are responsible for all material up to and including Design Lab 9 (including material already covered on midterm 1).

Students whose last (family) names begin with A-K should report to Walker Gymnasium (50-340), and students whose last (family) names begin with L-Z should report to 26-100.

You may refer to any printed materials that you bring to the exam, and you may use a simple calculator. You may not use computers, phones, music players, or similar devices. There will be no software lab, design lab, or lecture in week 10 (although week 10 will have tutor exercises as per usual).

If you have a conflict and are unable to attend the exam, e-mail Professor Freeman (freeman@mit.edu) before next Friday (12 April).

The following review materials are available to help you prepare:

We will hold one review session, on Sunday, 14 April, from 4-6pm in 34-101.

Weeks 8, 9, 10

A couple of announcements related to the next few weeks:
  1. Software lab 8 (this week) is really more of a hardware lab, and so you will be assigned a random partner and expected to work through the lab with that person. There will be checkoffs due during software lab time, so please do come, and on time. Your partner assignments for SL8 are available now in the queue; it is in your best interest to check them before your scheduled lab time so that you know where to go and whom to find when lab starts.
  2. Design Lab 8, Software Lab 9, and Design Lab 9 can be thought of as pieces of a larger whole, and so should be worked with the same partner. Because 7.5 hours of lab time is a long time to spend working with a randomly-selected partner, we are allowing you to choose your own partner for those labs. Directions for choosing your partner are available at: https://sicp-s4.mit.edu/cat-soop/index.py/6.01/DL08/partner . If you have not entered your selection by 10pm the night before your design lab 8 section, we cannot guarantee that you will be partnered with the person you specify.
  3. In week 10, there will be no lecture or software lab because of Patriots' Day. There will also be no design lab because of Midterm 2 (more details on Midterm 2 will come later). There will, however, be tutor exercises as per usual.

Midterm 1 Graded

We have finished grading the first midterm. Scores for the midterm (and, finally, for all your other exercises) are now available at: https://sicp-s4.mit.edu/gradebook/index.py. You will need certificates to view this page. If you have any questions or concerns about the scores found there, please contact Adam (hartz@mit.edu).

If you are concerned about your performance on the midterm, or your performance in the class in general, please send me ( hartz@mit.edu ) or Denny ( freeman@mit.edu ) an e-mail, and we will gladly meet with you to figure out a plan for improving as we move forward in the course.

You may pick up your exams at office hours, or immediately after your lab section. Please do not ask to pick up your exam before or during lab time; we will make an announcement and hand back exams at the end of lab.

If you find an error in grading, please submit your midterm, along with a cover sheet describing in detail the error you found, to me during lab, or to a TA during office hours. We will review your concern, and then regrade the entire exam in an attempt to eliminate the error you found, as well as any other grading errors. If you want your exam to be regraded, you must submit these materials to us by Sunday, 7 April at 10pm.

Solutions to midterm one are available here (Conlict Solutions Here). Statistics (and histogram) are available in the gradebook.

Midterm 1: Information and Review Materials

Midterm 1 will be on 19 March, from 7:30-9:30pm. You are responsible for all material up to and including Design Lab 6.

Students whose last (family) names begin with A-K should report to Walker Gymnasium (50-340), and students whose last (family) names begin with L-Z should report to 26-100.

You may refer to any printed materials that you bring to the exam, and you may use a simple calculator. You may not use computers, phones, music players, or similar devices. There will be no software lab in week 7 due to the exam.

If you have a conflict and are unable to attend the exam, e-mail Professor Freeman (freeman@mit.edu) before next Friday (15 March).

The following review materials are available to help you prepare:

We will hold one review session, on Sunday, 17 March, from 4-6pm in 34-101.

Office hours on Sunday, Feb 10 moved to Monday Feb 11.

Because MIT is still closed today (Sunday, Feb 10), we will not hold our regularly scheduled office hours this afternoon. Instead, we will hold special makeup office hours on Monday, Feb 11, from 7-10pm. Sorry for the inconvenience. Enjoy the "snow" day.

First class

Our first meeting is in Design Lab 1 (in 34-501), which meets

Section Changes

You must attend your assigned lab section in order to access the teaching materials. You can find out your section here (you should ignore the section assigned by the registrar). If you do not have an assigned section, or if you have a conflict with your assigned lab section, you can request a new section here. However, space is limited, so we may not be able to accommodate all requests.

Requests received before Registration Day will be processed before the first day of classes. Subsequent requests will be processed daily. If you submit a new request before we have responded to a prior request, the prior request will be ignored.

First-Time Programmer Extension

We believe that programming is a powerful engineering tool, and we would like to make sure that all 6.01 students learn to use this tool effectively. During the first three weeks of 6.01, we will provide exercises to help you develop Python programming skills, and to assess that you are making progress with Python.

We also provide an optional Python Tutor that provides a more systematic, step-by-step introduction to programming in Python. Working through the Python Tutor is an excellent way to build programming confidence for the rest of 6.01. If you have little or no Python programming experience, we suggest that you work through the Python tutor problems before doing the regular online tutor assignments. Any student who completes Wk.1-5 of the Python Tutor before February 11 will receive a one-week extension on 6.01 exercises in EX01. Note that this extension does not apply to design lab 1.

Switching to 6.00

If you find that 6.01 is starting up too quickly for you, you might want to switch to 6.00 this term, learn Python, and then enroll in 6.01 next term. If you want to switch to 6.00, you must do so by filing an add form before February 18.

Exam schedule

Midterm 1 has been scheduled for Tuesday, March 19, 7:30-9:30pm.
Midterm 2 has been scheduled for Wednesday, April 17, 7:30-9:30pm.

Student Lab Assistant Option

Students with substantial background in EE and CS can satisfy the requirements of 6.01 by serving as a lab assistant in the design labs. As a lab assistant, you prepare for design labs by working with the staff during staff meetings each Tuesday, from 4-7pm. You then help 6.01 students during your regularly scheduled design-lab session.

As a lab assistant, your design-lab grade (15% of your final grade) is determined by your participation and engagement as a lab assistant. You are not required to submit design-lab assignments. You are required to complete all other aspects of the subject (including the tutor exercises, software labs, homework problems, nano-quizzes, midterms, and final exam).

You may elect the lab assistant option for credit (three additional units) or for pay. Please email freeman@mit.edu with a description of your background if you wish to apply for this option.

Textbook

The textbook for the course is a set of notes written by the staff, available as a PDF file.