CS373 Week 8

What did you do this past week?

Last week I took a torrent of tests starting on Tuesday and ending on Thursday, totaling four tests in the end. Two of them were for Chinese, and I feel that I did well enough on them. The other two were for Software Engineering and Object-Oriented Programming, both having the same format and both taking place on the same night. I was not properly prepared for these last two.

What's in your way?

Currently in my way is the fact that while I have been doing well in this class so far, I was not prepared for kind of test that took place, and so I did not do very well at all. The grade I make on it probably won't make me change this class to a pass-fail one, but it will be a close thing.

What will you do next week?

While next week is spring break, I still have a lot of work to do. I have two programming projects to make decent progress on, a test to study for the Wednesday after spring break, a problem set to do to study for that test, and an assignment for Chinese.

What was your experience of Test #1?

Prior to the test, I had no experience with competitive programming, and that was exactly the format the test was in. In hindsight, I should have known better and studied correctly by doing the in-class exercises a lot, but I didn't think to do that and did poorly on the test as a result. I am a very Google oriented programming. I am constantly googling problems I run into because I am never experienced enough. Having to program with no help was an awful experience, but for the next test, I need to. I do think the time was a little short though. I remembered that somewhere said the test would go for 1 hour 45 minutes, but I can't remember where, so I was expecting to have a little longer.

What's your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?

My tip of the semester is to go over the in-class exercises every chance you get, and do as best you can without help from the internet or the answers. It will help you immensely compared to just studying the answers to the exercises.