A2, PS4

I got problem set #3 back and was happy to see that for the first time there wasn't a single correction; only a "Good!". Usually I feel like I always mess up one tiny detail that seems insignificant at the time but really isn't. I was worried that maybe I wouldn't get full marks because I complicated things by creating a formula for n + 1 in terms of n and n - 1 and then using the method with the roots to create a closed form. Well, I know it wasn't necessary for that problem, I really liked the method and thought my way of solving it was better than just unwinding. Needless to say I was relieved to get my problem set back.

Problem set 4 was a bit too rushed because I have so much other work (thank god I dropped from mat237 to 235 or else I don't know what I'd do)... I don't think I spent enough time on it at all. Ah well.

So far I only have rough solutions for A2. And I always find presenting a solution is harder than actually finding one so I'm worried I won't have enough time to finish it tonight (and here I am reading wikipedia and updating my slog) so I should probably stop procrastinating but after sitting through a four hour long mat235 prep session I feel like I need a break...

I sense another night without sleep...

Work for this week:
- A2 (due Monday) - DONE
- CSC207 E3 (due Monday) - DONE
- CSC207 Midterm (Wednesday)
- MAT235 Term Test #1 (Thursday)
- CSC207 Project Phase II (Friday)

edit: as of 8:09 Monday, A2 is done! Probably half of it doesn't make sense as it was mostly done between the hours of 3 and 6 a.m. but I've never been a perfectionist...

On another note, next year UofT is changing their schedule so there will be a study period before the fall semester's exams and a break during the fall semester itself... which means next year around this time I may not be so sleep deprived.
I wonder if this is in response to the rumour that UofT has the highest suicide rate among Canadian universities...

End of Week Six

So this week we've been looking at the complexity of merge sort and the master theorem. It seems slightly more difficult than what we've been doing previously but still manageable.

We got test 1 back today and now that I see how horrible some of what I wrote was I'm surprised I did as well as I did. I still think the last question was unclear. But I didn't lose too much on it, so whatevs. An example explaining it would've been nice but I guess that would've given away the base case and made it too easy.

A2 is out and looks horrendous. Especially that tree question which despite the fact that it was on A1 is still harder than the rest of A2 in my humble opinion. I have no idea how I'm supposed to do a good job on the assignment when I have a test/midterm in every other class and multiple problem sets and assignments all crammed into the next two weeks.

On the bright side, I really like the problem sets for this course. I find during lecture sometimes I don't understand things, but I learn it by doing the problem set which happens to be incredibly useful. They're easy enough that they're not intimidating and they reinforce the lecture material.

For example, last week I thought finding a closed form for a recurrence was impossible and I didn't understand what we did in lecture at all, but having the problem set forced me to learn it on my own (and made me wonder why I even bother buying course textbooks when wikipedia explains all).

Now to spend my entire weekend, studying for tests and working on assignments...

Test 1/Assignment 1 Marks

Test 1 went alright other than the last question which was horribly unclear and I wound up writing so right on the test because it honestly seemed like it was asking you to prove the exact opposite of what you had to. Maybe I just can't read and misunderstood the question but considering this is a computer science course I think poor language skills should be expected. Just kidding. Kinda.

Anyway, I made a really dumb mistake on A1 that cost me a few marks but other than that it was good. I guess there's always next time. Note to self: proof-read all questions including the last one regardless of how lazy you are.

I should probably be working hard considering this is a good chance to get caught up or work ahead in all my classes but now that I'm home for the weekend and have a real kitchen I can't help but take advantage of this time to pursue my favourite past-time: turning every gathering into a potluck, bringing delicious food and then once everyone finishes, surprising them by telling them it was vegan. Now to catch up on statistics or make more cinnamon buns... mmm cinnamon buns...

Week Five

Today's lecture went right over my head. I didn't really get anything about closed forms or the trees. Hell, I can't even remember what we were proving about the trees. Usually I don't have a problem following things in this class but today I couldn't focus or piece any information together at all. I guess I better read over the text and re-read the lecture notes before Wednesday. Hopefully when I'm not even more tired than usual from waking up early to write a horrible, horrible calculus quiz, it'll make more sense.

I went to my registrar and dropped down to mat235 today and now feel strangely invigorated. Now that I'm not worrying about mat237 it almost feels like I'll have time for my other courses or maybe even a part-time job.

I'm also a little anxious to see A1. I was definitely not as concise as I wish I was. I could've provided much clearer explanations than I did in half the words for some questions (mainly #2).

I also realised that when I converted my assignment from .rtf to .txt while it did convert it to .txt it threw an ugly header with font information at the top and a bunch of slashes in the file. It's still readable, now I just feel dumb. Even after working as an apple tech support agent I'm still a mac n00b (unless it comes to start up issues or defective batteries or teaching the elderly how to attach pictures to their emails when they don't even know how to move a window).

Ah well, atleast now I know how to properly use textedit for next time. *sigh*