Midterm

Last week, I had my first midterm in the university. The exam was about what we learned in the first 4 weeks. In order to prepare, I reread the lecture slides, organized the notes, and worked on few previous exams. This helped me to remember and clear the understanding of the recent course materials. I was anxious and nervous, but strangely it faded away when the exam started. I was able to calm down and concentrate on the problems. The exam it self was not easy, but it was not too difficult. If I did not review, I might of understood nothing. In the beginning of the course, I was unable to understand the content. Once few weeks passed, I get the grasp of concept and started to get along with it. The midterm was good opportunity to recognize my knowledge and find out my lack of understanding towards the course.

CSC 165 Lecture Two

In this week`s lecture, I was introduced to conjunctions, disjunctions, and negations. In my opinion, conjunction and disjunction was fairly easy to understand. Conjunction was a concept of  co existence. For example, if there is a candy x that is green and it is a gummy bear in a group of candies, I can express this by using sign ∧. This sign represents "and" the expression will look like (∃χ∈C,G(x)∧B(x)). (C as Candy, G as Green, and B as gummy Bear). It seems to be simple, but there is a part we have to watch out. When "and" was used in the English sentence, we have to make sure we don`t write everything altogether. If it was written collectively, it will cause confusion. For example, if there is a cheese and ham in group of ingredients, we cant say (∃χ∈I, C(x)∧H(x)). (I as Ingredient, C as Cheese, and H as Ham). This will indicate that there is ingredient that is cheese and ham. Instead we have to write separately in order to say there is cheese and ham. Disjunction is about "or". This expression is true when at least one of the statement has to be satisfied. If we want to say candy x is green or gummy bear in a group of candies, we can say (∃χ∈C,G(x)VB(x)). Like conjunction, we have to be careful to not make any confusion. Negation is represented by symbol ¬, it is used to express "not". To negate expressions, we basically have to put ¬ in the beginning. ¬ (∃χ∈C,G(x)∧B(x)). This tell us that there is no green gummy bear. Although this seems simple and clean, we have to modify expression so that negation sign is applied to smallest part. I think this is difficult part of negating expression since I have to play around with expression. Sometimes ∃χ∈C, changes to ∀χ∈C, and => changes to V. I get confused with this easily so, I have to keep practicing so that I can find a correct negating solution. Therefore, this week I found tutorial questions challenging. Especially one that involves expressing some courses and no courses. If I cannot understand negation by Saturday, I should go seek for a help.

CSC165 Lecture One

The first lecture gave me confusion, but it also taught me how to approach the problems. After the brief review of the course outline, the professor started to talk about precision. In this section, we learned how much precision is important towards computer programming. To be precise, words have to have restricted meaning that is specific for specific tasks. I had no problem understand this concept, until we were shown the python programs. Since I had no  experience in programming, I could not find the connection between first and second half of the lecture. Also, I forgot some of the mathematical notations, so that pulled my leg too, but the next slides helped me figure out the problems on precision. It was the concept of "problem solving". The first process was to understand the problem, such as analyzing what is given or what is required. Next step is to plan, and carrying it out. Then in the end, check the solution. When I went back to the residence, I tried out this method to the examples that I did not understand in the class. I read the statement again and looked for phrases that is important. It included words such as "all", "any", "not", "true" and "false". This helped me translate python language into human language. Then I was able to understand what the question was asking for and led me to understand the concepts.
There were two main skills that I learned by facing the problems. First skill is to asses the question. Instead of getting confused by the statements that I do not understand, I can analyze it. By being calm and doing processes step by step, it led me to the solution. Another skill is to translating python language into human language. This skill could help me when I have to write a program. This may help me to express my codes efficiently, making many errors.
First week of lecture were challenging, but also left me achievement.