Week 13: Apr 17 – Apr 23

What did you do this past week?

This past week was the ending of our last OOP project. It was actually a nice one; in my opinion a lot better than the previous project. Perhaps it was cause I was already familiarized with the thought processes since they were pretty similar conceptually, or maybe I just understood it way better. In any case, my partner and I finished pretty quickly while taking the weekend off the project too. With this past us, all that’s left is the final test.

What’s in your way?

In my way is just the long haul of the end of the semester. At this point, many of us are already burnt out of the year and genuinely want it to end as fast as possible. However, I can’t slip up.

What will you do next week?

This next week will begin the long nights of studying for my upcoming finals and finishing any projects and tests I need to do for my other classes. The school year has finally come to and end and many things are starting to slow down and not take much time. Therefore, I have quite a lot of time on my own hands.

What’s my experience of the class?

Nearing the end of the year, my experience of the class still hasn’t changed. I still recommend this class to many CS majors who are thinking of what classes to take.

What’s my pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?

My tip-of-the-week is the settle down and really start studying for these finals these next couple of weeks. All our projects are done and you can really start focusing on studying. If you haven’t done very well on the recent quizzes, make sure you go back and look and them and fully understand why you got it wrong and why the correct answer is correct.

Week 12: Apr 10 – Apr 16

What did you do this past week?

This past week we started Project 5. My partner and I got the first two parts of the project passing already by Friday. We put in a lot of work because I went home to Houston this weekend for Easter. I like my new partner; she’s friends with a couple good friends I have in one of my organizations.

What’s in your way?

In my way is a couple of tests this upcoming week so I need to split my time studying for those and working on this project. I do think this project is a little easier to grasp than the previous project, so I’m not too worried about it. I’m more focused on doing well on my tests, specifically Geology.

What will you do next week?

Next week i’ll be studying quite a lot and staying at the computer lab pretty late. I’m sure my partner and I can finish this project pretty soon. We only have a couple weeks left of school so I have to pick up any slack that I’ve had in the past weeks.

What’s my experience of the class?

My experience in my class is good. I’m enjoying this project quite a bit and the lecture material is getting easier to understand. My quizzes are starting to fall a little bit but I just blame that on some silly mistakes.

What’s my pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?

Here is a giant handbook titled Competitive Programmers’ Handbook. It’s an introduction to competitive programming, just in case you wanted some help on joining things such as HackTX.

Week 11: Apr 3 – Apr 9

What did you do this past week?

This past week we finished up Project 4. Now by far, project 4 was the most stressful project of the semester so far. My partner and I were barely able to turn it in at the very last 10 minutes. We just could not optimize our HackerRank code fast enough for that last test case to pass. We spent the whole day just trying to make our code faster. But luckily enough, we were able to do it by adding a boolean vector that corresponds with the grid that checks if you even put something in that row and check whether or not you need to look through it.

What’s in your way?

The main thing that will be in my way this upcoming week is Easter weekend and how it’ll be hard to be able to work on things while visiting my family at home. Hopefully i’ll be able to find a partner soon and work on this upcoming project as soon as possible. On an unrelated note, I have a pretty terrible sunburn from camping this weekend so it’ll be pretty hard to function this week.

What will you do next week?

Next week will also be just trying to find a partner and starting as soon as possible. I do plan on starting my studies soon so I can bring the B+’s i have to A’s with the next round of tests coming around.

What’s my experience of the class?

My experience of the class is still the same. I’m liking the vector class material we are going over and it’s very easy for me to understand and follow along. While the project was extremely stressful to do, it was still doable, which is more than I can say for other CS classes I’ve taken.

What’s my pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?

In case you’ve been questioning your life decisions about being a CS major like I’m sure many of us do, here’s a post that could help boost your moral.

Week 10: Mar 27 – Apr 2

What did you do this past week?

This week was the start of Project 4. I was able to get a partner and we’ve been meeting every day since. I also attended the Atlassian talk on Monday. It was interesting; it kind of opens your eyes to how even major companies can still make performance errors. I did apply for their internship after the talk just because I really enjoyed their values and how much emphasis they put on teams. I was pretty interested in HipChat and how it would distinguish itself from other major instant messaging services.

What’s in your way?

The only thing in my way right now is the time constraints between me and my partner. He is a bit more busy than I am, so we need to finish this project in what time we do have together.

What will you do next week?

Next week we’ll be finishing Project 4. I have no other homework in any of my other classes as of now, so this project will be the top priority.

What’s my experience of the class?

My experience in this class is still enjoyable. The only thing that has changed is the difficulty of the projects and the more stressful they’ve become. Luckily, Prof. Downing has been giving relatively easier quizzes, so those aren’t nearly as stressful as they used to be. I’ve been getting 5’s on them for quite awhile now. (Please don’t change that after reading this)

What’s my pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?

My tip-of-the-week may be obvious but I do think you should focus on finishing the HackerRank portion of the project as fast as possible. For one, it’s worth half of the project points. Not only that but it’s easier to understand and organize since there are no separate files you need to worry about. When you finish HackerRank, you’re essentially done with the project. All you need to do is translate your code between the files you’re given and make sure they work with each other.