Preparing for quizzes and tests:
To prepare for the quizzes I have been using a classic two-pronged approach, where prong-one entails the understanding of lecture materials, and prong-two refers to the understanding of the practice exercises. Prong-one contains three sub-prongs for me: attendance, attention, and analysis (the sub-sub-prong being alliteration, I suppose). To ensure that I am keeping up with the course material, I try to attend as many lectures as possible. It is vital that while in physical attendance, I also attend mentally! This is sub-prong-two. I personally find it helpful, especially for information retention, to pay attention to the lecture while staying as engaged as possible. This, coupled with some light note-taking, has done wonders for my programming. Sub-prong-three comes into play when I am unable to attend a lecture. “Analysis” refers to the process of reviewing the lecture materials that are posted on the course website. Once these three sub-prongs have been satisfied, I am ready to move back up to the prong-level, and approach prong-two (not to be confused with prawn-two). Prong-two is sits in a somewhat grey area when compared to prong-one. My approach is not as quantifiably black and white, although it is equally as important as prong-one for quiz preparation. My process can’t be neatly divided into sub-prongs, but here’s what it would look like when distilled down into a single statement: looking over the entire practice exercise while doing only the work that will positively benefit my understanding. For me, the ratio of time investment to information gained reigns supreme. Once both prong-one and prong-two have been fulfilled, I am ready to take on the quiz- if not the whole world! My preparation for tests simply adds a third prong to my two-pronged quiz approach. Let’s call this new prong “Preperation”. Prong three can be divided into review, and practice (as sub-prongs). I like to look over my notes and revisit the material that will appear on the test, hoping to re-familiarize myself to material covered earlier in the semester which may have slipped my memory. Then I like looking through the practice exams, getting a feel for the types of questions asked. With these three prongs, you can't go wrong. You will also have a fork (a trident?). (It’s probably worth noting that this approach has left me satisfied with my grades on the quizzes and test, so far.) Interesting functions: I have enjoyed looking at the stacking functions that we’ve written to automatically create large amalgamations of small original images. Although the visual process of stacking consecutively larger images is something that seems innately natural to me (at least to the creative/intuitive side of my brain), I am surprised by how convoluted and cumbersome the functions are, especially when evaluating. Intimidating to intimate-dating: Initially, I found the aforementioned stacking functions to be intimidating. In looking at more of them, and stepping them by hand, I have gained a better understanding of them. I hope to ask one of these functions on a date soon. Asking questions? Is it easy? Yes- I think! Although I haven’t asked any, it seems like there are a variety of helpful options.
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– Why did you choose CSC104? What do you hope to get out of the course?
I decided to take CSC104 to fulfill one of my arts and science electives this year because it seems to strike a healthy balance between interesting course material, and a manageable time investment. What I am looking for primarily in this course is the 0.5 arts and science elective credit that will contribute to my completing my degree and graduating this spring. My secondary hope is to understand more about computer science and programming in an attempt to gain a broader understanding of the world and the role that computers play therein. Toady, computers play a vitally important part of my everyday life, and I am aiming to better comprehend their inner-workings (as my current understanding is laughable- flappable really). – What did you expect programming to be like, and how does it compare with your experience in the course so far? (If you programmed before, how is programming in this course similar, and how is it different?) I have had a small amount of experience with programming before this course, learning the basics of HTML/CSS. This course has been much more fun than I expected. The racket programming language is slightly different than what I have previously experienced, but there are many similarities also. When I first opened and installed the program DrRacket, I did not immediately set the language to CSC104. This caused my first 20 or so minutes to be extremely frustrating… Thank goodness that I found a solution! – What do you find interesting so far? Learning the language and how functions can be embedded is interesting. Thinking through the steps reminds me of doing grade 9 Mathematics, BEDMAS in specific. I find this similarity interesting. – How did you study for the quizzes? Are you satisfied with your performance on them; if not, what do you plan to change? I have studied for the quizzes by going to lecture, and going over the practice exercise briefly. Yes, I have been satisfied with my performance thus far. I do not plan to change my approach much, unless the course becomes significantly more challenging. – Are there any specific Computer Science topics you're interested in? I am interested in being an active member in our future. With this in mind, I am interested in understanding how computer’s and programs function, on an elementary level at least. I have no specific interests other than to be interested in general. Harrison |
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July 2020
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