What I'd tell myself on day one of 1332

If I could go back: 1. Big-O isn't a side topic. It's the language of the whole course. Get comfortable early. 2. Your own tests matter more than the ones you're given. 3. Don't skip lectures on "easy" structures. The patterns come back later in harder ones. 4. Form a study group by week three. Explaining things out loud is half the learning. 5. Sleep before big deadlines. Every bug I wrote at 3am took two hours to find the next day. It's a hard class, but it's also the one where I felt like I really learned to program.