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Comment by aplusbi | Hacker News Reader

That sounds terrible. If I saw something like that, I'd probably do the problem, then look up more information on it. I'd probably start with wikipedia but move onto google (well, ddg these days) if I didn't find anything.

The sort of policy that does not allow one to do basic research is pretty anti-academic if you ask me.

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I agree. In a similar vein, I took a bunch of electronics classes and wasn't allowed to use my TI-92+ on the grounds that other students didn't have them. I though that was the biggest load of crap especially for a program that was geared towards workforce training. My employer is hardly going to say "I need you to do X, and oh by the way, if you try to use all the resources at your disposal, you're fired."

The early homeworks in this class (Great Theoretical Ideas in Computer Science) were basically puzzles, where if you've seen the style of problem before you more or less knew the answer. The goal was to expose us to these types of problems and teach us how to think them through properly.

It was definitely one of the most fun courses I've taken.

That's one of those critical to include details. Otherwise the story makes the prof sound like a douche.

Absolutely right, I updated the post.

15-251 isn't a freshman-year course, is it?

It was either 2nd semester Freshman year or 1st semester Sophomore year, honestly I don't remember which it was.

It was required 2nd semester Freshman year for all CS students.

(Hey Brian!)

The policy's wording also bothers me. There's a massive difference between searching for "the answer" and doing some research.

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