my teacher is using uva as a grading and teaching tool

[misterniceguy]

my Teacher of a cs level 3 class is using uva website as a grade by requiring us to turn in solutions to problems on the website and our solutions are graded by getting an answer accpeted by the judge.
Is this right to use java 1.1 as a tool to teach an aalgorithems and data structure class and bass a large part of our grade on the judge which isnt very java friendly. Most people are even able to solve the problems but are just not able to pass the judges special need requirements.
Any ideas on how to help our class with the judge or suggestions to help improve our overall educational experince.

[CodeMaker]

oo boy! I really hate this. I think this is the most stupid idea to grade java class with uva.

this site works more with mathematical logics not with programming languages. You guys should complain to this grading system.

[shamim]

One thing I don't like is teaching Algorithm and Data Structure using Java. For starter, most data structures such as list and queue are built in. Learing them means one should be able to write them from scratch.

To judge ones conception on a language, UVA problems can be used, but I think the teachers should make their own dataset instead of relying on the Online Judge. This way, any limits regarding compiler will be eliminated.

[CodeMaker]

But, someone with the best conception on programming languages but with poor mathematical conception or logic will surely fall in deep trouble with that kind of judgement. I think, logics and IQs of mathematics are far more different then language skills and uva problems deal with mathematical logics and someone who knows everything about Java may find himself/herself in deep trouble with uva problems, don't you agree?

[Dreamer#1]

But, someone with the best conception on programming languages but with poor mathematical conception or logic will surely fall in deep trouble with that kind of judgement. I think, logics and IQs of mathematics are far more different then language skills and uva problems deal with mathematical logics and someone who knows everything about Java may find himself/herself in deep trouble with uva problems, don't you agree?

you surely don't need to be some mathematician to solve most UVA problems... and if you think to become a good programmer all you need is "the best conception on programming languages", which you feel is just to memorize the syntaxes, methods, tools and to know to code, then you are completely wrong... and by the way, if one has a poor logical sense or IQ I doubt how he can ever be a good programmer without improving on that!!!
and forget the mathematics part you can always do without it.... but if you are a CS student I doubt your objective of studying CS... you don't need to study CS to be some database/web developer, read some good books (there are lotz) and spend some time looking at the works of other professionals... that is all you would need... dont think i'm kidding...i'm saying that from my own personal experience... so if that is all you want to be then this place is not for you... but after you graduate ask yourself, if you can't even develop a simple algorithm on your own then what really have you learned all these years? you learned to develop .NET applications? trust me you don't need to study CS for 4 years to learn that little.

[Niaz]

It is a good idea to judge C/C++ knowledge with UVA. But of course not the JAVA.
There are lots of Math problems. If teacher have the goal to judge C/C++ knowledge with Algorithm and Data Structure, then he/she should leave that Math part.

Discrete Math and Numerical Methods teacher can judge the students with Math problems provided here.

So, UVA is a vast field. Only we need to see, whether the way of judging is proper or not. Problem should be selected carefully. That's it.