You Shall Be Missed

I can't believe we are finally here. The last post. It has been a great journey. Having a space to just complain about the course at times was very helpful, so thank you professor Heap for that. Maybe that's my secret to success. Who knows? I am still confused by computability; with the proof part anyway. I kind of get the concept but I will need to review course notes to fully grasp how to prove whether a function is computable or non-computable. With exams around the corner I will have to manage my time well as the exam of this course is very conveniently placed at a time where I have lots of exams before and after this one. It will be hard work, but I am up for it.

Oh Happy Days

Oh happy days! Just a week after Big-O we get into Big-Omega and Big-Theta. I am so glad they are related. It makes this course just that much easier. Honestly as long as we follow the proof structure for everything it will be a dream come true. I have done so many proof structures now that I can't even forget how to do it no matter how hard I try. Then there is the midterm from last week. My week simply can't get any better. I got a really good score by my standards. Looking at the average I honestly thought I would've done much worse, but I was wrong. I got way above the average and that makes me feel really happy. Please let these happy days go on forever and ever.

False Alarm

I talked about how solving Big-O problems is impossible in my last post. I take that back. It couldn't have been much easier. I was unnecessarily making it seem harder than it actually is. I agree we have only worked with polynomials, which are by far the easiest to work with to be perfectly honest. There will be harder problems in the future, but I'll tackle when it comes. Until then I'm just glad Big-O isn't as tough as it looks.

On a different note, we had our second and final midterm before the final in December. I can honestly say this midterm couldn't have been any easier. Maybe it's down to my study habits (which I have mentioned are quite poor) or maybe it's my retention skills (I usually do lots of things from memory). Whatever it is, it's clearly working considering I've found both midterms quite easy. Or maybe the professor just made it slightly too easy considering we only had 50 minutes...

Worst Case: Failure

So we learned about worst case time complexity this week. My first thought was what would be my worst case scenario; failure to pass this course. Then we got into Big-O. My worst fears were becoming reality. Are we really expected to know this stuff? In any case at least I am glad that I am one of those people who can mess up all year round but will do well when it matters most. One thing is for sure though. If I am to pass this course I will need to know Big-O inside and out, not to mention the worst case time complexity.

Oh, and did I forget to mention sorting methods? I guess I did, and that is a bad thing considering that is also one of the many ideas in the course I don't know full well. I am doing CSC108 as well, and I know I will learn sorting methods in this course as well, so I might as well review my notes on insertion sort and god knows how many other sorts. It will help me in the long run after all...

Algorithms

I think what we are now getting into is the main part of CSC165. And I don't get a bit of it. We started talking about insertion sort and selection sort, terms which I have never heard of. Similarly, I have also never heard of the big-Oh. Looking back, I feel like an idiot for not understanding the material we had learned previously instantly because in comparison to big-Oh, all that stuff is super easy. I guess the hour or day system won't work for this material, so hopefully by spending extra time studying, and utilizing office hours when needed, I will eventually understand the material. I can't even imagine what the tutorial quizzes will be like, because so far I have always found the quizzes challenging in the beginning before being able to work through the problem and get full marks. With only 15 minutes for the quiz, I can't afford to blank out right before the quiz as has become the norm these days with me.

Epsilon-Delta (and the midterm)

So there was one less day of class than usual due to thanksgiving. This extra day gave me the time I needed to catch up on the week's lecture material as I was struggling to get a grasp of it. Not having taken MAT137, the epsilon delta proof was at times really challenging because I hadn't worked much with it. Therefore I searched online for the math page for MAT137 and looked at some examples in order to get a better understanding of what the epsilon delta proof is. I'll admit that I didn't become a master of the epsilon delta proof overnight, however I did learn quite a bit. With that said, however, I wouldn't consider myself comfortable with this proof, so I do hope we don't work much with it in this course. However I will spend more time trying to learn the material as I can't just wait and hope for something to go my way.

On a side note I got my midterm results back. I can honestly say I did better than I had expected, but there is still room for improvement. I lost all my marks on the last question so I will definitely need to work on being able to derive sets that fulfill certain conditions. With that said though, I'm glad what I initially thought was tough ended up being really easy for me. If I stick to spending an hour a day relearning what I learned in the lectures hopefully I can maintain, or even better, improve my marks.

Midterms Are Here!

Ok so we had our csc165 midterm this past week. I'd say it went much better than I had expected. Yes I did screw up the very last question, but then I'm glad it's only the very last question and not the whole test. I literally spent the whole week doing anything but study. I have no idea why I did that, and I do realize in hindsight that I shouldn't do this in the future, but I just couldn't help it. I guess studying isn't my cup of tea. Despite that, however, I reckon I did pretty well. For all that I've heard about the sheer difficulty to succeed at U of T, I haven't really struggled as yet. Maybe that's why not studying really didn't affect me that much. I am looking forward to know my score on the midterm (barring the last question of course, which I know I screwed up). For those of you reading this post, I'd just like to reiterate that please don't be like me and not study for exams. It can come back to haunt you in the future. With that said, however, I'll take your leave and go back to not studying.