END OF CLASSES ! WOOT WOOT

Fall break was a huge relief and gave us a well deserved time-off.

Now that we have finals coming up soon and the last assignment due, I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of how to work this course.
The strategy is simple:
1. Find a group of people you are comfortable working with.
2. Spend a couple of hours first just reading the assignment and then reading the relevent lecture slides.
3. Spend some time on piazza making sure you understand what is being asked.
4. Work on each question together with the group.

I tried dividing up the work but then I realized I'm never going to learn how to do the question that I wasn't in my part.
Instead we made sure to do each question together and clear our doubts out loud.

I still need to work on my dislike for big-O,Omega and Theta questions but the tutorial exercise helped a great deal and I think I have it down.
Hopefully I'll be able to do them in the finals too.

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE ~

More BIG stuff...

Starting on a bright note, I got a 100 on the assignment and did even really good on the midterm.
So I'm really happy with my progress in this course.

However, this week we've stayed on track with the 'BIG' functions and moved to Big-Theta and Big-Omega and I have to say, not a 'Big' fan. lol sorry that was a bad pun.

It encompasses complexities which I think is a very important thing for a CS student, since a program has to be not only working but also the quickest and the most efficient.

I feel like I spent a lot more time on the tutorial exercise this week but hopefully this will help me get better hang of it.

BIG O's

First off, I have to say that this midterm was definitely better than the last and I'm pretty sure I did really well on my assignment too !

Secondly, the name big O is really hilarious, I don't even know if that's an appropriate thing to 'slog' about but seriously it cracks me up.

So big O's seem a bit more complex than I'd like. It's one of those things where I understand what we're doing in class and then when I look at it again I'm lost.
However Larry's slides are very helpful and they are easy enough to understand at first glance.

I'm learning better ways to study 165, and one of the best things that's helping me is study groups.
Though we occasionally do get distracted and end up going to coffee breaks, it definitely helps when we do concentrate and get productive.

Can't wait for the grades on A2 and midterm !!

Intense Preparation Time

So next week is the second midterm and I really really really really want to do well on it.
I've been practicing a lot more of proofs and seem to get the hang of it.
What bothers me is if I have to 'disprove' something. Only because usually then we have 'there exists' instead 'for all' and finding an example that fits is usually so time consuming.
I'm still really anxious about how am I going to manage it in the midterm because I have enough time on the assignment  but no one is going to allow me 20-30 mins for that one question.

Anyway, mostly done with A2 and the office hours were actually helpful and Larry cleared a major doubts quite easily.

(Fingers crossed for A2 and midterm !!! )

PS- Goodluck to everyone else too !!!

I can't think of post names anymore...

Floor -> the largest integer less than or equal to that number
Ceiling -> the smaller integer greater than or equal to that number

So this is what we are working on now. 

The concept seem easy but the proofs are a whole new thing. It's not exactly difficult but it does seem a little complicated.

I'm hoping to do well on A2 to make up for the midterm mishap. Its due in just over a week now and I feel like this time I'm going to start going to office hours.

More Proofs !!

So, as expected I didn't do great on the midterm but surprisingly I didn't do that terribly ! Thanks to whoever corrected my paper and was so lenient in the correct ! :)

 In class we've continued doing proofs. I'm not sure of how well I'd be able to do them if I wouldn't have had a little bit of understanding from MAT137 already.

We also did disproving by taking the negation.

The class was cut short due to thanksgiving holiday. 

Week 5 ...!

Midterm Troubles...

Sooo...midterm !
I have to say, not really my best test. I knew I'd practiced similar questions but in that moment, when I was squeezing my pencil super tight and everyone around me seemed to know everything on the paper, I was sitting there with a blank mind.
Looks like I have to work on my test fear.. :(

Moving on .. we started proofs ! I feel like this is where the course gets intense.
I'm hoping the proofs are similar to the ones in MAT137 in some way or other.

Hopefully my spirits will be higher for next week!

(Hope the grading for the midterm isn't that severe !! )