Hello, I just finished C S 429 and will receive an A in the course. I did well on the first and third exams (90+) by studying 2 weeks before the exam. I did ok but not great on the second exam (~70) as I only studied 3 days before.
I am taking OS this fall semester with Dr. Norman. I was looking for advice on how/if I should prepare lightly during the summer, and the best strategies to learn the material and succeed during the semester.
I studied in Computer Architecture by doing past exams, noting all my doubts and clarifying with LLMs/TA for simple questions and by going to Dr. Joshi's office hours for anything I still remained confused on.
My understanding is that there are fewer practice exams for OS. How should my study techniques pivot in this regard? Is the exam format for Dr. Norman very different from the joint cs 429 exams?
Furthermore, I am worried that I will not be able to code properly for OS labs. For 2/4 comp arch labs (MM, System emulator) I used LLM tools to debug once I got stuck for 2+ hours, which took away from the learning experience. (Note LLMs were allowed this past semester on all labs)
I am not going to cheat with LLMs in OS, so I will need to shore up my skills a little bit. I am not sure how to do this/the extent I will need to. Any advice is appreciated.
Regarding summer preparation for any concepts, is OSTEP a good resource? I am not looking to learn the whole course, but I would not mind a little background knowledge.
Thank you.