Upon first entering CS 107 I was severely intimidated, I had no solid foundation of programming and I was two weeks late into the class. To put it simply this class beat me up, each program took me somewhere between 30 to 35 hours, that is including the first one as I had no book yet and only attended one class. I also got destroyed by the tests, placing among the lowest in them. But I will say this after each program was completed I felt such a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction that I would honestly do it all over again. Thankfully my hardwork paid off and soley through my completion of all five programs did I pass this class. The labs and quizes are difficult but not essential for an A. As I look back upon it though, I feel as if getting an A in this class was never out of reach. My post analysis of the situation tells me that the best way through this class, is to get an intimate understanding of the concepts, I was merely doing each program with low knowledge and lots of guess work. If one were to truly understand the concepts I do not see the programs taking more than a few hours to be honest. And the tests would have been a breeze. My best advice is to go to lectures, read the book, and actually think about the concept, this is one class where the knowledge is heavily built upon itself, DO NOT FALL BEHIND!!!!!!! This is 100% not a class to which you can cram for. Prof Reed is awesome, and always available for help. Trust me, I am horrible at this stuff, but anyone can succeed in this class if they so wish and believe.