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Skills

Master Your Tools (The Missing Semester)

4 weeks · 2 milestones

The Missing Semester of Your CS Education (MIT CSAIL), then one project of your own. Part of the Varsity Curriculum: Computer Science.

Milestone map

Milestone map

2 milestones

Do the course work in public

1–2 weeks (12 hrs/week)

Take The Missing Semester of Your CS Education for free and do the lecture exercises, kept in a repo. Keep everything in one public repo or notebook as you go.

Proof required

Link your public repo or notebook with the lecture exercises, kept in a repo, and a screenshot or log showing the self-check passed.

What gets checked

  • Every lecture's exercises are there.
  • Scripts run as shown.
  • Git history is clean and real.

Common mistakes

  • Copying posted answers: verifiers read the history.
  • Skipping the self-check, then asking for review too early.

Powstik Guide

A public repo or notebook with the lecture exercises, kept in a repo.

Steps

  1. Make a public repo or notebook first.
  2. Do one unit at a time and commit after each.
  3. Run the self-check: Do the exercises at the end of every lecture page.
  4. Write a short README: what is here and how to run it.
  5. Ask three people who know the topic to check it.

Template

README
Course: The Missing Semester of Your CS Education (MIT CSAIL)
What is here:
How to run it:
Self-check result:
What was hardest:

What gets sent back

  • No history, just one big upload.
  • Self-check not shown.
  • Code that does not run from the README.

Resources

Foundationstart here

Depthgo deeper

What a verifier looks for

  • Every lecture's exercises are there.
  • Scripts run as shown.
  • Git history is clean and real.
  • Ask one question about a choice in the code; the answer should be clear.

You'll sign in first, then come straight back here.

Automate a chore with a script

1–3 weeks (5–8 hrs/week)

Use what you learned. Make a dotfiles repo plus one shell script that saves you real time each week. Keep it small enough to finish in about two weeks.

Proof required

Link a dotfiles repo plus one shell script that saves you real time each week, with a README that says how to run or read it.

What gets checked

  • The script runs from the README.
  • It saves the time it claims.
  • It handles a bad input safely.

Common mistakes

  • A project too big to finish.
  • A demo that only works on your machine.

Powstik Guide

A dotfiles repo plus one shell script that saves you real time each week.

Steps

  1. Write one line: what it does and for whom.
  2. Build the smallest version that works.
  3. Test it on someone else's machine or with someone else reading it.
  4. Write the README.
  5. Ask three people to check it.

Template

README
What it does:
Who it is for:
How to run it:
What I would do next:

What gets sent back

  • Does not run from the README.
  • Not clearly the person's own work.
  • Claims more than it does.

Resources

Foundationstart here

Depthgo deeper

What a verifier looks for

  • The script runs from the README.
  • It saves the time it claims.
  • It handles a bad input safely.
  • Check that the work is the person's own.

You'll sign in first, then come straight back here.