UBC CPSC 314 Computer Graphics

It could have been a fun course but.....

Even though UBC Graphics is one of the best in the world, the ugrad graphics course really sucks. Basically 314 didn't teach me anything and the assignments weren't exciting either. Denish Pai's teaching was horrible.

I wouldn't recommend you taking it unless you want to do research in graphics.

Difficulty: 2.0 / 5.0
Quality: 2.0 / 5.0

UBC CPSC 402 Numerical Linear Algebra

Numerical Linear Algebra is very very useful. Make sure you take it before taking machine learning, optimization etc. In my opinion, you should take CS 402 in 2nd year, or even 1st year!!!

Also, don't take CPSC 303. Numerical integration and DEs are not quite useful for CS majors. I can't really comment on CPSC 302 as my first year summer research supervisor created that course as well as textbook. It's broader than 402 but less focused. For example, CS 402 covers SVD and Eigenvalue decompositions in more detail.


Difficulty: 3.0 / 5.0
Quality: 4.0 / 5.0

UBC CPSC 121 Models of Computation

Don't attend lectures. They are completely nonsense. The labs were kind of fun though. You can even extend the lab requirement to implement your own CPU~~~  I feel like CS 121 (the digital logic part) was more difficult and interesting than 210, 221, 213 and of course 304.

Difficulty: 2.0 / 5.0
Quality: 2.5 / 5.0

UBC CPSC 210 Software Construction

A shitty course. However, I had a good project experience because I found the right person to work with. Make sure you work with someone you actually like.

Difficulty: 1.5 / 5.0
Quality: 1.0 / 5.0

UBC Math 302 Introduction to Probability

Oh Math 302 is not difficult but very very important. You should aim to understand every topic and solve every problem. You will need probability, not necessarily measure based though, in computer science.

Another course you should consider taking after Math 302 is Prof. Nick Harvey's CS 536 Randomized Algorithms, a very awesome and useful course. Math 418 and 419 are measure based probability.

Difficulty: 2.0 / 5.0
Quality: 3.0 / 5.0

UBC Math 215 Elementary Differential Equations I

As the title suggests, it is very elementary. Math 215 doesn't cover much material. Pretty much no theory involved.

Difficulty: 1.0 / 5.0
Quality: 1.0 / 5.0

UBC Math 223 Linear Algebra

Math 223 is the so-called honors version linear algebra.

It wasn't very difficult but Prof. Lior Silberman was awesome. His 223 was way better than other 223 sections. We did cover some interesting topics such as linear operators, projectors, multi-linear algebra.

You will learn more algebra, such as Canonical forms, tensor products, in Math 323 Rings and Modules

Difficulty: 3.0 / 5.0
Quality: 4.0 / 5.0