EECS 245 was first offered in Fall 2025 at the University of Michigan. At the end of that semester, we asked students for advice to relay to future students. Here are some (unedited) responses we received.
The only time where reading the notes is a lot more helpful than you think - read the notes.
READ THE COURSE NOTES. This is more important than going and watching lectures
Reading course notes and mastering course exercises is really necessary for doing well in the course.
Treat this as similar to 203, and read the lecture notes.
Make sure you tell people that the course notes are MANDATORY (I got cooked on exam one because I didn’t know something existed in the course notes and not in lecture).
This class showed me the way I wish all classes were taught. Writing the notes as the class was being taught really let me see the thinking behind everything rather than just reading off of a slideshow, and then the course notes allowed me to go back and make sure I knew everything correctly.
I loved the course notes!!! Whenever I missed lecture it felt really easy to get up to speed because of how clear they were!!!! 10000/10, wish more courses had lecture notes like this
I would just make it clear at the beginning of the course that course notes and exercises are your best friend
This is all to say, make sure to get in the habit of reading the course notes AND doing the exercises and activities in them. They are your friend!