CS373 Week 13

What did you do this past week?

This past week I spent most of my time studying for the two Chinese tests and a long quiz I had. It was very hectic since it was a lot of material to cover and review for each assignment. The rest of the time I spent working on my two programming projects, running into issues, and getting them fixed eventually. I also spent some time going over this class's Hackerrank exercises to get a head start on studying for the test.

What's in your way?

Currently in my way is a lot of projects due this week. I have my two programming classes' projects due this week, as well as a video presentation for Chinese. So once again I will be very busy. This worries me because I would really like a lot of time to study for the test in this class, but the closer we get to the test day, the busier I get.

What will you do next week?

Next week I will study for yet another Chinese test as well as two more quizzes. I will complete my two programming projects, hopefully with as little frustration as possible. I am already close with one of them, but as usual, I am stuck on a weird bug. Other than these things, I will repeatedly go over the exercises from this class to get comfortable with writing all that is needed.

What was your experience in learning about refactoring?

From doing the refactoring and listening to Professor Downing explain it, I understand why it is necessary, but it just makes it look less readable to me. When we first started the Shapes refactoring, the program was very readable, but after the latest refactoring, with all the abstractions, it is just harder to understand quickly than it needs to be in my opinion.

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

Start practicing the exercises for this class as early as possible. I know most of my classmates probably already know this, but I still want to reiterate. I did poorly on the first exam and the main reason why was because I didn't go over the exercises as many times as I should have. My goal is to try and go over most of the exercises at least once per day up until the test. That way I can spend my time on the test actually solving the problem and not on fixing compile errors.

CS373 Week 12

What did you do this past week?

This past week was mainly spent finishing up the two programming projects that were due this week, and completing the final problem set for Algorithms. I also had an unusually high workload for Chinese last week since it is close to the end of the semester and all the hardest assignments and tests, and the final group project are coming up.

What's in your way?

Currently in my way are the last two projects for my programming classes, but neither seem especially difficult, so hopefully they shouldn't be in my way for much longer. I also have two tests for Chinese next week, so there are going to be a couple of long study sessions for those. The main thing I worry about and have worried about since shortly past the beginning of the semester is my Algorithms class. I have a hard time understanding the recent lectures in class, and I know the final will cover much more simplified versions of what we cover but I don't know by how much.

What will you do next week?

Next week I will continue working on the last two programming projects for the semester, and hopefully finish them before the end of the week so I can go watch Avengers: Endgame this Sunday with a clear head. I will also be studying for the two Chinese tests I mentioned previously as well as two quizzes for the same class. In my spare time, I will try to slowly better understand what we are discussing in Algorithms to prepare ahead of time for the final.

What was your experience of Project #4: IDB3?

It was an interesting experience adding features to an already existing dynamic website. Seeing the site slowly grow with more information and features was a satisfying process. Though, by the end, it does feel like some refactoring should be done with our patchwork code.

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

Just this week I learned about utcatalyst.org which can show previous semesters' grade distributions for classes. While in the end, it might not affect my final class selection, it is interesting to know that this semester I apparently chose all difficult classes according to the grade distributions.

CS373 Week 10

What did you do this past week?

This past week was a nice reprieve from the previous week. I didn't have to rush to finish two projects, and we only had attendance quizzes this week, which was nice. I started work on the current project and made a little bit of progress. I also had a Chinese test at the end of the week.

What's in your way?

I currently have two projects due in a little over a week, so I need to get both of them mostly finished this week. These projects concern me a little, but I think I can do both of them without the amount of trouble I encountered the last project. I am also having trouble understanding the recent Algorithms lectures, so I need to spend a lot more time studying the new content than I usually do.

What will you do next week?

Next week I will be doing some heavy coding trying to finish two projects as soon as possible. As I don't have a partner for one of them, a lot of that time will be spent coding alone, so there are sure to be a lot of things to debug. I will also finish another Algorithms problem set and start studying for the next Chinese test.

What did you think of the talk by Dr. Rich and Dr. Cline?

I thought the talk was very informative and interesting, if a little over the top. I understand and appreciate that we need to try to consider all consequences, intended or otherwise, of our choices, but applying this behavior to formulas seems a little overboard. Like they said in their talk, if we were to use this kind of process on every choice we make, we would never make any choices.

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

This week's tip is to take breaks when you can. The week after spring break was such a hectic week that I was glad I didn't have too much to do the following week so I could relax and cool down from the craziness. Whenever you are overwhelmed with schoolwork, as long as you can spare the time, you should take breaks whenever you can. Otherwise, you will eventually burn out and be even less productive.