Week in Review #7: Test #2 results and other things

We have just finished Week 10 off with getting our tests back and doing more Big-O examples, which led up to Big-Ω. (I can't believe we finished our tenth week in CSC165 in the blink of an eye.)

I was very happy with my second test. It was better than the first one. The result from the previous test definitely gave me that boost! Although I messed up on the floor proof, the other two proofs were well done. I had trouble remembering how that proof worked; I've looked at the solutions to the second assignment the previous night, but my answer didn't seem to match up. That's okay. I'll practice proofs involving the definition of floor in time for the exam. This test's duration matched with the previous test's duration, which was 50 minutes. It would be nice if I had a bit more time, perhaps to look over my answers and fix any mistakes before submission, but I was capable of answering all questions in 50 minutes in some way.

I'm feeling very comfortable with proof structures. I'm confident with the outer parts of the proof, but the inner part needs a bit of work because the statements are different. For now, though, I'll keep reading the course notes, making annotations, and going to office hours.

November is a pretty hectic month for us with midterms, assignments and all. At the same time, the material presented in CSC165 is piling up. I must admit, Big-O is a complex concept. I'll let it take time to sink in. CSC165 is a difficult course, so to ensure success, I visit Professor Heap during his office hours on Wednesdays. I also make use of the Computer Science Help Centre to study for tests and work on assignments.

As I mentioned before, I understand the proof structure and the definition of Big-O very well. Proving it requires more practice because it all depends on which statements we get. For instance, Big-O can be done with two functions and polynomials. The proof structures are similar. But to enhance our proof, it's crucial that we begin with scratch work before going on to write the proof.

I think I'll be okay with Big-O and Big-Ω pretty soon. It's new material. Once I get the hang of it, I'll be fine before I write the final exam in a couple weeks' time.

I'll also begin practicing sorting algorithms using the approaches seen in both CSC165 and CSC108.