How do I respectfully tell my professor he is going over the material way too fast?

There is no polite way to order your professor around. You do not get to *tell* him to slow down.

You may *ask* him why the course is so much faster this time, but when you get an answer you don't get to tell him the answer is wrong. Once he gives you an answer, you get to take it away with you and think about it. You may also want to check the course description in the student handbook/school catalogue, and see whether the departmental office will let you see some other syllabi for the same class.

And maybe (although not necessarily) you'll learn something - maybe Dr. Popular consistently teaches only a small portion of what he's supposed to teach because he loves being adored by students and doesn't really care that his students are incapable of succeeding in one or more of the other classes they'll take later on, for example.

In grad school I TA'd for a guy who barely managed to cover material that we did in the 4th week when I took a corresponding class at my undergrad school. The results were not pretty, and once again I was reminded of how lucky I was to accidentally stumble on the professor who taught me in that undergraduate class: he, and the women and men he introduced me to, changed my life.

When I got a chance to teach the class on my own - the one at my grad school, which wasn't supposed to cover as many topics as the first class I took - we hit that material at midterm, and all but one of my students (who did not come to class often, participate when he was there, or bother with homework) knew the second half of what we covered cold by the final.

Or maybe your current prof really is out of step with the rest of the department. If that's the case, you may want to withdraw from the class and try again later. You've already (by staying in the class) agreed to do things his way. You have no power to make him change now.

Good luck.

Arrays are not rocket science. It's one step more complicated than a variable. If you're only getting that in the end of first year, really not sure what you're learning in the interim. Every "Learn X in 21 Days" book I've seen on programming languages touches arrays.

If you have evidence - not rumor, evidence - of other sections of the *same* course going slower, you can mention that to your professor that things are out of sync with them. Perhaps your course is supposed to be accelerated and others are for those starting off at a lower level. Who knows.