I'm a software engineer with a mediocre understanding of linear algebra, probability, and calculus. I'm taking CS 7641 (Machine Learning) and struggling with the math, proofs, and derivations, although I understand the concepts well enough. I am doing fine on the projects (SL and OL at least) via LLM help with the code, and well enough on the quizzes via the retake mechanism.

Can I still get a good grade in this course without fully understanding the underlying math? I don't plan to pursue ML beyond this course, my goal is to have passing familiarity with ML and enough to get more into it if needed at work, so I'm specifically interested in what it takes to do well in CS 7641 and not how much math I'd need in practice.

Okay we're only about 2 assignments through in CS6242 and the assignments take me SO MUCH time. I didn't even finish the first assignment entirely. The second assignment was I think like 30+ hours of coding/debugging. Then the gradescope grading turned out to depend a lot on RNG.

Are people just AI generating code for this class? Please let me know. How is that possible given the AI policy for the class. I think I've lost considerable sleep for this class. Any Advice?

I have a bachelor's computer science but I also have a very very very hard time with mathematics all the way going back to my elementary school days. In college I barely survived getting a D in my algorithms class with all the studying and office hours that I could do.

I have learning disabilities including dyslexia and anything mathematical wise is it very difficult for me.

So how screwed would I be to even try to do the program?

I'm not sure if there is an official avenue for course requests for the OMSCS program, but I had a couple that I had been looking at from the Stanford Online Graduate Certificate that I wish we had available in the OMSCS program.

The first is "CS224V: Agentic AI":
- https://online.stanford.edu/courses/cs224v-agentic-ai

The second is "CS329A: Self Improving AI Agents"
- https://online.stanford.edu/courses/cs329a-self-improving-ai-agents

Both of these courses are available online from Stanford and official courses in their graduate curriculum as well. For the OMSCS program, we currently do not cover these topics in any available classes. I had also looked into if it may be possible to take the courses and transfer the credits, but for Georgia Tech, it looks like you only transfer 2 courses if they're taken before enrollment into the program.

Not sure if this is the right avenue to ask, but are courses like this being developed for OSMCS? If so when could we expect for them to land as registrable courses, and could they count toward the AI Specialization?

Unpopular opinion: Georgia Tech's OMSCS classes are unnecessarily difficult and tedious. Or maybe the difficulty is necessary, depending on your goals.

For context, I'm currently taking a robotics course at a different institution that combines theory, hands-on work, projects, and research. Comparing the two, I find OMSCS unnecessarily more difficult. Sometimes it feels like doing “wax on, wax off” with Mr. Miyagi. I don't know about others, but I learn best when I understand maybe 50% of the theory, then work on a practical project that helps another 25–35% click. The rest I pick up on my own when I want to explore something in more depth.

Maybe OMSCS just isn't for me, but I feel like the amount of tedious coursework ends up pushing students to rely more on AI just to get through it. I wonder if a combination of practical projects and oral assessments, where students actually explain what they've learned, would be more effective than endless problem sets and assignments.

I'm not against academic rigor. I just don't think making something more tedious necessarily means students are learning more. And for those who breezed through these courses, maybe you're just smarter than me. I'm just sharing what my experience has been like.

So I used to fail all my courses cause I had a hard time writing and debugging code. Id understand the logic perfectly and could write the pseudo code, functions, loops etc and what they should do. But when I ran it everything would crash. Bascially id spend 1-2 hours writing code and 8 hours debugging syntax or be stuck and not know what to do. So what would end up happening is more often then not I'd run out of time during an exam/lab/assignment or would make one formatting error I couldn't see clearly and the entire output would crash and I'd fail the course.

Also there was a problem of you don't know what you don't know. So for exmaple if my class never showed me a hashmap it wouldn't ever occur to me in my dreams that this was a thing. So id sit there for many hours trying to figure out a problem with a solution that required a thing I didn't even know exist. I also didn't grow up around tech or programming so things like looking at documentation, stack overflow etc didn't even occur to me till second year. I also later in life realized while working I might be a little ADHD/autistic and would miss simple connecting words like "the","it","if" in reports paragraphs etc. My reports would get the message across clearly but it'd miss a few words here and there and id always have to double check.

The issue ultimately became that I would spend so much time thinking it through and was slow I just couldn't keep up. I started failing courses and getting discouraged cause my best effort would yield no results. If in the end my input wasn't perfect my output wouldn't be correct.

Eventually I gave up on CS entirely for the next 5 years and went onto another field because I realized being that slow would've never cut it professionally.

It was never really a logic or understanding issue for me I think(majored in civil engineering and did well in most of my unviersty math courses). Even for multiple choice questions where they'd give me a snippet of code and ask me for an output id usually get it right cause i could follow the logic. But when it came to writing and debugging it was a major issue since I never grew up coding and couldn't do it fast enough before the lab/assignment/exam time would run out.

Since AI I pretty much have all these obstacles taken care of. I can describe my logic to it and write clunky code and it'll fix any syntax and grammatical errors. If I hadn't seen anything like a hashmap it'll suggest it to me and I'll know to use it for next time. Then I can go line by line asking it to output and comment each line, ask questions where I may confused about the wording and then either use that code or improve upon the logic it provides.

I never one shot it and go line by line with AI correcting any logical errors I make and i run tests and incrementally verify every single thing. Basically my rule of thumb

I took a couple of courses as pre-reqs for OMSCS and aced them both when I definitely wouldve failed then without AI cause time would just run out.

But anyways it makes me feel like an imposter. I know for a fact without AI I could've never gotten to the answers on my own even if I "understood" the steps I needed to get there. Idk if this is vibe coding or if anyone can relate.

CS6200 GIOS is my first OMSCS course, and I'm worried I might have accidentally violated an exam rule during the midterm.

After completing Honorlock verification and putting my phone away, I reached the exam instructions page. Since I hadn't clicked "Next" to view the first question, I genuinely thought the exam hadn't started. I didn't realize the timer was already running. At that point, I panicked because I wasn't sure whether a 360-degree room scan was required, and I remembered someone mentioning in our course Slack that they had performed one.

Thinking the exam hadn't started, I made the mistake of picking up my phone to check that Slack thread. I saw newer replies clarifying that a room scan wasn't required, so I immediately put my phone away and proceeded with the exam.

To be clear, I never viewed any exam questions while using my phone. I was still on the instructions page the entire time, which I hope the Honorlock recordings can verify. The next day, I voluntarily submitted a private Piazza post explaining everything to the instructors and encouraged them to review my Honorlock webcam and screen recordings. I haven't received a response yet.

I understand that I shouldn't have touched my phone after Honorlock instructed me to put it away. Ironically, I might have broken a rule while worrying about following another.

I've been quite stressed about this, especially after reading other OMSCS academic integrity posts. I genuinely enjoy studying CS, and the possibility of facing serious consequences over this mistake during my very first course is upsetting.

Has anyone experienced something similar? How seriously might OMSCS treat this situation? Should I simply wait for the instructors to respond?

I am feeling I should drop out after exam 1 results. I got 10/20 which is making me cry. I did solve all the practice problems and still failed. I am feeling I should drop but will it become any better next time I retake don't know.

Anyone here who is feeling the same after results for this class or been there?