Problem Solving

Well, I really wanted to write about the first project we did for this problem solving slog. The first time when I opened up the criteria file I was stoned...I had no clue what to do, didn't know where to start...I even went on to our term mark making rubric and checked out the percentage the project weighted. I was thinking if it weighted less than 5 percent I'd just not do it at all, but then I thought if I don't try and overcome it, I might be stuck on the test. I decided to spend a entire afternoon on it and after reading the instructions for like 23478683910459875948753(exaggerating...) times, I started to notice that there's a pattern to the code we're given to fix. The codes turned out to be way easier than I thought. Our prof. was really nice in the sense that everything we had to fix was provide with a similar one that he has already written as part of the code. For example, in the Ball.rkt



where is says "write two check-expects for past-left? below this comment" all I really had to do was read the code, understand what it wants, and do pretty much the exact same thing as what the Prof. did on the check-expects that he provided on the bottom of this picture.

I'm really glad that I actually tried with my own abilities to complete these codes, and it definitely helped me on my term tests.

Lastly.......I hope I do a good job on the final exam!!!I'm going to try to not stress myself out before the test... :D this was a fun course, in fact, the only course that I actually liked this term..

2013.March.22

I saw this picture and thought the words totally fit into our Wikipedia project. "What is essential is invisible to the eye." If I didn't get the chance to do this project I would never have thought editing Wikipedia is so complicated. Even though everyone uses it, few people actually know about how it really works, but all the details of editing information, adding pictures or biographies is actually a lot of work. The most important part about being able to present the information that's presented on Wikipedia is in fact, the editing behind the scenes.

Yesterday, I also got our tests back; I got an 86%, which is 5% lower than the last test. I looked it over and the main part where I lost my mark was on the Von Neumann bottleneck question. I forgot to include the facts about heat and size in my answer. Another two marks were lost for simply being clumsy and making stupid mistakes. I better not make the same mistakes again on the final exam!

Exausted Week

I must say, this has been one of the most dreadful weeks in my life. Every single course has something due either this week or next week and every single course has a test either this week or next week. I feel like everything is piling up on me, but I must complete every task to the best of my abilities in order to feel satisfied with myself and now...I feel really really really exhausted...

Speaking of the term test on Thursday, I thought it was not as difficult as I had expected. I think what really helps is attending the lectures and taking down notes, writing down the stuff that the prof. doesn’t put on the slides is especially helpful. One really interesting thing is that the aid sheet isn't actually helpful during the test, but the benefit of making one is that during the process of making it, you learn the stuff. Moreover, I tend to watch the videos a lot of times and I even write down the explanation of each line of the function. That's why I think I did really well on the first test and hopefully I've done a decent job on the second test.

2012.March 14th

   I wanted to start on the plan for WikiII on Wednesday and I thought I would be able to finish on that day too, but as soon as I looked into the actual "learn how" parts I was shocked. Everything seems so complicated, even something as simple as uploading a photo or deciding where to place the photo on the page is so different from what I had imagined. I thought we would just need to find a photo somewhere  on the internet and click upload and then drag the photo to where ever we want it to be placed on the page. But after searching around and reading some help pages, I start to get an idea of what it's really like to edit Wikipedia. I used to always hear people say "Anyone can edit Wikipedia! You can just mess around! It’s so easy!" but now, reality shows that nothing is as simple as it seems. I just have to devote my fullest to this project! :)

 

2013.Feb.10-Done With the First Test!

  Last Wednesday, the day before the test, I went to the computer science help center to get some help on a few questions which I didn't know how to solve. My biggest problem was the last question on the sample test. I was hoping someone at the help center could help me out on that question, but disappointingly, the TA at help center left me with a very vague answer which didn't solve my problem. As I studied for the test that night, I watched the Racket videos again and managed to solve the question that I had problems with. I find the Racket videos very helpful!!!

  The test wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, I thought I would depend a lot of help from my aid sheet, but I ended up not using it at all. I think it's because most of the materials covered on the test were talked about in the videos, so taking a good look at the videos really help. Of course, aside from just watching the videos, understanding the videos is really important too!

 

2013.02.02-TEST IS COMING UP!

Woke up this morning and found an email from the prof titled "term test" and found that he has provided us with an term test from last semester. At first I was like "YEAH ! now I got something to study from!" and then, as I looked over the questions I started to worry for myself. The only question which I think I know how to do is question 5. I don't even know where to start on questions 3 and 4. Question 6 is probably going to be the most difficult question for me because I don't even understand the point of check-expect and neither do I know how to use it properly.  As of question 6, I don't remember covering something called mult-rem.........I think I will start reviewing and studying NOW.

[Course Videos] - Helpful!

Course videos for Dr. Racket are definately very very very helpful because even though during lectures the Prof. shows us how to work Dr.Racket step by step, without trying it out on my own, I don't actually know if I know how to work it out. So far, from what we learned about Dr.Racket, my favorite skill is being able to piece four of the same pictures together. This may seem like something terribly easy for some students, but for me, a student who's not skilled at computer programming knowledge, this is something very fascinating! I'm looking forward to learning more about picture programming and hopefully at the end of the year I can show off to my friends. (hahahahahaha XD)