Important Note:
We will encourage more student participation on Piazza rather than answering right away, that is, we will wait until other students step up and answer questions.
Of course, we will still provide clarifications on logistics, typos, subtle points, etc.
We want to make sure that you are helping each other out, and having instructors give away the answers isn't the most beneficial for your education either.
In order to make Piazza a better resource for everyone, we've outlined some guidelines for you to follow when posting your questions. Questions which follow these guidelines will have a higher chance of being answered!
We've created individual posts for type of assignment. Please ask questions, discuss problems, or help out in those posts only. Before asking a question, read through (or search) the whole thread to see if your question has been answered.
Please don't give away the answer on Piazza. You can explain things in a way that still lets other students figure out the essence of the problem on their own, but don't spoil the problem. For example, don't point to a useful stackoverflow or YouTube link that works out essentially what the problem is asking about.
That is not cool.
Post such spoilers after the HW is due. That is totally fine. If you are not sure, post privately to instructors and then we'll let you know.
While not violating Rule 2, try to make your questions public, because others might have the same question and we don't need to answer them multiple times.
If you think your questions may take more than 3 minutes to answer, please come to office hours or homework parties instead.
Please do not post questions of the form:
- "Is this the correct solution to HW X problem Y?"
- "Would this receive full credit on HW X problem Y?"
- "Is this the right level of detail for HW X problem Y?"
Please do not use Piazza as a medium to ask instructors to check your homework in advance. We simply cannot check every student's homework through Piazza.
Feel free to ask questions of clarification, or ask questions about the course content to achieve a deeper understanding, but at a certain point, you must apply your knowledge, give it your best shot, and submit your answers with confidence.
Your question should be self-contained. The TAs (and other responders) should not have to scan through PDFs to even figure out what the question is. Ask yourself: am I referring to some lecture /HW solution/discussion solution/past exam?
If the answer is yes, post a screen shot of the relevant part. This can include your handwritten notes from the relevant lecture.
Don't post one line saying:
"At step n, I get XYZ, and I'm now confused."
This forces the GSIs to guess:
What happened in steps 1, 2, ..., n - 1?
Most likely, the GSIs will guess wrong, and we run into a mess of followup questions trying to figure out what steps 1, 2, ..., n - 1 were.
Instead, post:
Starting out, we have: ....
Then, I do ..., and I get ...
Next, I do ..., and I get ...
Next, I do ..., and I get ...
Now, I get $&%&#(, and this makes no sense.
Then, the GSI can respond:
The mistake is at step 3, you're not allowed to apply ABC to XYZ because ...