Week 7

Proofs! We are beginning to get more into solving proofs currently. I enjoy the puzzle solving dynamics involved with proofs and the tutorial this week was fun. It took me a while to figure out the “trick” involved in proving the statement but figuring out the steps along the way was a good learning experience.  Although getting into all of the introductions was a little bit tedious and seemed like common sense. We also began to get into algorithm analysis, and tracing code. I enjoyed this aspect and look forward to applying it in the future. Even in CSC108 it will be useful and I won’t have to rely on code visualizer as much. Which I currently find myself doing with many of the CSC108 assignments. The efficiency aspect of developing algorithms will be crucial in the future and this excites me. I feel like I am finally going to be able to put my coding to work in the near future and be able to apply what I've been learning to the real programming world.

Week 6

The test went as expected, I finished with a low eighty, which I am happy with. Although the class average was very high for a test. I am worried about future tests. Professor Zhang explained after our test that they would be harder in the future because of how ell everyone did. The subject matter in this course so far has been interesting and not too impossible, but I feel like it could get rather abstract when we get more in depth into the course. For some reason my brain is retaining this class a lot better than most others, it may be we are moving at a slower pace, or the subject matter is more interesting, or it might even be because it is a night class and I am more alert. Whatever it is, this class is not my largest worry right now.

Our tutorial was canceled this week and the lecture was only two hours so we did not cover much. 

Week 5

Midterms! This week we had our CSC165 midterm. I felt like I did well, with the questions being very close to the past exams I felt I was well prepared. I didn’t answer the last question and left it blank. Luckily it was only worth six marks and I will get one of those back because of the 20% rule for not answering. I should have studied our assignment more and better prepared for that category of question. If I had better prepared that aspect I believe I could have got near perfect on the test instead of the eighty-something I predict. In the future I plan to better prepare for the tests by studying a broader area of the content instead of just mainly past tests.

Our tutorial this week went well. Going over proof structures was very helpful not just for CSC165 but also MAT137. In calculus we are currently doing a lot of proofs but we never really went over the structure or the formal layout and I think understanding that helps a lot with solving the proofs. I look forward to the more complex proofs in the near future and I am excited to relate theorems and mathematical sequences to computer science.

Week 4

This week we got into more advanced logic, including De Morgan’s Laws. This course has continued to be all about logic which is kind of boring, but will probably be essential in time. I thoroughly enjoy the proof portion of this week’s lectures and love the problem solving dynamic it opens, this is what I have been looking for in computer science the whole time I have been involved.

This course has still been similar to MAT137 but I now see how they are branching off in different directions. I feel confident about the test coming up. However, it being my first ‘University’ test I am uncertain how difficult it will actually be. A lot of people are worried about it and even though we are allowed to bring a paper with whatever we want into it I am not sure. I have heard a lot of people saying things like, “I am not ready for this test… At all.” But I don’t really understand what the big deal is, I find that Larry has been going at a good pace where it isn’t hard to manage the information load if you just go over the notes once in a while.

This week’s tutorial was great, it demonstrated the class’s ability to share ideas and open up. We were able to bounce ideas off of each other in a fashion that formed all of our ideas into one definitive answer. We discussed how some answers were better than others even though they were both correct and formed outcomes that we could all agree on. The quiz was easy once going through the tutorial and I believe that the majority of the class believed the same. 

Week Three

In this week of class we went over concepts related to disjunction, negation and Sets. This week we started to veer in a different direction of MAT137, which is nice but I anticipate will cause difficulty in the future. I am excited to see the direction this course will take. It seems right down my alley and getting more and more interesting each lecture. Larry’s enthusiasm bolsters the students’ attentions and causes most people to stay interested, but sometime a few students struggle with grasping certain concepts and when they ask the professor they still struggle even when the professor explains. I think sometimes Larry could be more thorough with questions he is given, and make sure the students fully understand what he is trying to portray. Or the students should just study after the lecture to make sure they understand.

Our tutorial this week was a lot better than the last. We were given a more difficult worksheet and concept to understand and it caused the class discussion to be a lot more in depth. The tutorial worked really well when everyone contributed to the discussion and it wasn’t based around the T.A teaching but rather using our classmates to feed off of and share ideas with. The environment was great because it felt like nobody was afraid to ask questions, and when they did it sparked discussion that helped everyone better understand the topic.   

Weeks One & Two

In our first two weeks of class we covered a lot on how to understand different types of quantifiers and mathematical symbols which will allow us to understand the problems that will be thrown at us throughout the year. So far this class (CSC165) and MAT137 have overlapped immensely which is greatly beneficial. This overlap is what allows me to follow each course without too much confusion. It feels like I am taking the same course twice in the week with the only difference being CSC165 has some python thrown in, essentially just changing the language we learn through.

Initially I was confused on the venn diagram portion of our course. I think the most confusing aspect was grasping that it would be impossible for something to be in the second circle (Belonging to the sets). Eventually it became very clear after discussing with a friend. It really helps to share ideas, even just to hear your own thoughts outside of your own head.

Going to my first tutorial was an experience. The entire class was very quiet before class started which caused a sense of awkwardness to arise. Eventually our teaching assistant asked if everyone had done the preparation; everyone had. We went over the worksheet with ease. The entire class had hardly any questions. It felt like the T.A hadn't been left with enough to go over. We finished going over the worksheet forty minutes in without any difficulty, seeing as everyone had already learned the material on their own. The quiz took under a minute and we were all out of there. I thought tutorials were more about learning in a different environment. It felt like it was just a formality with not a large amount of learning. I predict in the future tutorials will become a more intensive learning experience as the course becomes more advanced.