Contributing to CMU ECE/CS Guide

The goal of all contributors is to give guidance to students who are on the CS/ECE track at CMU. We want to give tips in a way that encourages learning and gives students who are willing to work hard a good chance at succeeding in their classes.

There can always be improvement made to articles. Don't be afraid to edit articles that have already been written for classes.

Guidelines

• Avoid professor-specific commentary - Professors change throughout the years, and you can get in trouble for saying the wrong thing
• Do not encourage cheating - If you want to provide practice problems, write problems of your own
• Focus on helping students learn - Give practical tips that help students succeed

How to Contribute

1. Fork the repo - Committing directly to master is not allowed. Use the GitHub UI to create a fork (upper right hand corner)

2. Make your changes - If your changes are for a new class, add it to the README.md table of contents in the root directory

3. Use markdown - Please use markdown for all content. If you need additional assets like images or PDFs, create a new folder in the repo

4. Open a pull request - Submit a PR from your branch to the master branch. Once approved, you can merge it

File Format

Each course file should follow this structure:

# XX-XXX: Course Name

| Category | Difficulty |
|:--------:|:----------:|
| HW       | X          |
| Exams    | X          |

## What to expect
[Description of course structure, workload, etc.]

## How to do well
[Tips and strategies for success]

## What to watch out for
[Common pitfalls and challenges]

## Resources
[Links to textbooks, practice materials, etc.]

Difficulty Ratings

Use a 1-10 scale for difficulty ratings:

• 1-3: Easy, manageable workload
• 4-6: Moderate difficulty
• 7-8: Challenging, requires significant effort
• 9-10: Very difficult, one of the hardest courses

Questions?

If you have questions about contributing, open an issue on GitHub.