For better or For Worse …. CSC148 has come to an end

Time has passed by so quickly, the last CSC148 lecture is now over and in two short weeks we will have our CSC148 exam. Truthfully I felt like this semester went by too quickly. At times I look back on CSC148 and wonder what I have learned, if feels like I haven’t learnt a thing.  I feel that I think this way since all of the techniques we have learned in CSC148 are so ingrained with my coding that I don’t consider it “new material”.

Take recursion for example. I feel like I’ve been coding with recursion since the very first day I started coding. However that is not the case. It is just that every function, every class and basically every assignment in CSC148 required recursion. Due to this, I sometimes feel that without recursion, my code is not complete. In a way having all these CSC148 techniques ingrained in me is a good thing. This is since, it allows for my studying to go a lot smoother due to my familiarity of the material.

Now all that is left is the final exam. I really don’t know what to say about the final exam. I guess all I can say is for you to carefully read over your questions and understand what you are coding. Also, if you get stuck look for resources online , or reach out to Dan or the TA’s for help. 

Don’t get frustrated and give up!

 (on the left is a picture of a bunny covering his face)

While reading over a few slogs, I found one of my fellowCSC148 classmates referenced a certain site more than once. After looking thorough the site I found it  is a great place to review course material. It provides definitions and explanations as to what the different things are. For example, the site defines recursion and breaks it down so for those who do not understand it, it is easy to learn and grasp the concept. Take a look at this site, it may be helpful when you are studying. This site also goes over Stacks, Queues, Recursion, Sorting and Tress.

Another helpful site that you can visit is out very own TABryan’s website. He has CSC108 review and also some recursion. Here’s the linkto some helpful study tips.

This blog was really fun and I enjoyed updating it and also reading other peoples blog. On that note, I wish you all the best and Good Luck on all of your Exams !

(on the right is an animated picture of two girls studying, and at the bottom of it is the caption " Exams, Sometimes You Need a Friend to Get Through Studying")

The Wait is On

Why is it that it isn’t until after the test that you realize you have made tonnes of mistakes? I guess if you are unprepared this will happen. Although other things like stress and the pressure of time would also cause us to make mistakes.

Personally for me I feel like everyone else. After the test on Wednesday all I can think about is “WOW I can’t believe I did not think about that. Why am I so dumb? How could I forget that?” However now that I have had time to reflect, I have come to realize that we are only human and there are times where we will make mistakes. At this point all I can do is learn from my mistakes and move on.

 

So don’t beat yourself up over something that you can’t change.

(above is an animated picture of an upset girl on the verge of tears.)

Don’t worry about things in the past.

(above is an animated picture of a girl who is all greyed out and not colored in, she has  a blank face on and has a look on her face that seems like she is not there)

Don’t lose sleep, worry about your mark

(above is an animated picture of a girl with a dark cloud around her, in addiiton her cheeks are sunken in and seems like she has not slept in days)

Some wise words from a wise friend : 

 “ it’s time to move forward and put this test behind [us]. The real test is yet to come.”

(on the left is an animated picture of a nerdy looking boy playing a guitar)

With that in mind, lets all start preparing for our next battle. Let us all be ready so that we will not have any regrets!

Lets go Troops ! We can do it !

(on the right is an animated picture of four girls wearing army print getting ready to attack)

Let the Games begin

This week was a revisit to a topic we had done in CSC108, sorting. We learned two new sorts, quick sort and merge sort, on top of the three (bubble, insertion, selection) that we have already looked at. The thing I enjoy most about this topic is when Dan runs all the different algorithms with a really big list of elements. It kind of reminds me of the Olympic, where it’s a race to see who finishes first. Imagine that! Sorting algorithms as an Olympic sport : 

“and the winner is ….. Insertion Sort !!!!!! Folks at home, the crowd here at the Olympic stadium has gone wild!!! What an UPSET! I guess that O(n²) efficiency does win sometimes. Who would have known!”

(above is a picture of the Canadian womens hockey team right after they beat the USA at Sochi)

Another notable thing that occurred this week is that I made a “Slogs I Like” list. It gives me joy to know that my posts somehow lead to an enjoyable read for someone.

So I would like to thank berkelycolortran for making my week!

(above is a picture of a berkely colortran)

On a side note: I do recommend anyone that is reading this post to check out berkelycolortran‘s slog. It is very informative, organized and it is easy to read.

Now to everyone writing the test this coming Wednesday:

I know studying is probably the last thing you want to do this weekend BUT, 

study long and hard, and don’t forget to take breaks once in a while! 

(above is an animated picture of a girl studying for a test and smoke is coming out of her head and she is saying she "cant concentrate", the picture caption says "Studying, They Can't even make studying Fun in animes")

It’s the last computer science test we will have before the final exam … 

YOU CAN DO IT !!!

(on the right is an animated picutre of a girl with a determined look on her face and a headband that says "Do Your Best!")

Cereal for our Early Morning Class

This past week we went over permutation approaches to finding anagrams, Big O notation and efficiency. 

It was very interesting to learn of the signature method of finding anagrams of a word. 

    

Anagrams are words that are the same length and contain the same letters. As such we can make charm equal march.

(above are two pictures, on the left is a picture of the lucky charms cereal and on the right is a cartoon picture of a leprechaun and the word March)

Initially, I could only come up with the straightforward method of making every possible “word” combination possible and comparing it to a list of valid words. However, Dan went over the signature method, which is a faster and more efficient approach.  The signature method is when the letters to a word is sorted alphabetically and this is word is compared to another words alphabetically sorted list of letters. The lists are called signatures. Similar to how everyone has their own signature, each word has a different signature, unless it is an anagram of another. When the two algorithms are analyzed, the signature approach is faster with longer words. Although, after learning about it I found that I liked the signature approach better.

Furthermore, this week we also learned Big O notation. When Dan introduced big oh notation the first thing I thought of was cheerios. Although it seems weird, I found that thinking about cheerios made the lessen easier to understand (although I think this was due to how hungry I was that day). Never the less I seemed to have grasped what Big O notation is comprised of ( the worst case that the code will ever have run time wise).

(on the left is a picture of the Cheerios cereal box)

Although conceptually I understand Big O notation I think implementing it would be difficult. This is since I felt the same with recursion but similar to what barelypassing148 said, 

“ most of the time … coding for me is, well trial and error, until I either get it right or give up” 

(on the right is a cartoon picture of a guy holding his head and the word "overload" is above him in big letters)

As such, I hope that on Monday Dan goes over Big O notation a little bit more, so that I can helpfully learn more about it before I become lost.

 So until we learn more about cheerios  ….. or even other brands of cereal!

(above is a picture of twelve different kinds of cereal)

It's March !!!

I can’t believe that in a month CSC148 will be over. This semester has gone by really quickly. We have learned things from raising exceptions to trees. Although recently it has gotten more confusing since Dan introduced Trees, Binary Trees and Binary Search Trees (however differentiating between them is simple, after some practice that is).

Our recent topic, LinkedList has proven to be a bit difficult. Although what many of use have learned is not to rush into things we don’t know. The last two labs that we had, were the same. This is since many of us started coding without actually knowing what was being asked.

Thus, trying to solve an issue we don’t really understand may result in a bunch of valuable time wasted. Compscikitty brings up a good point, in which:

“unless you are explicitly forbidden to ask for help, 

for an assignment per se, then take advantage of your 

resources”

(on the left is a picture of a cat typing on a labtop)

As a result, if you truly can not figure out what the lab is asking then ask your TA.

Other resources as igotthealgorhythm points our is the discussion board.

""After the first time going over assignment 2 I was extremely confused. Going over it a secound time didn't help much either. I eventually went over to the discussion board looked at questions from my fellow classmates and also, asked my own. This turned out to be very helpful and I understood the gist of what to do."

(on the right is a nerdy looking cartoon boy dancing)

Now with all this in mind …. on to e3 ! Go Go Go!!

(on the left is an animated picture of a crowd with their arms held up in the air happily cheering)