Week 7

We finished proofs this week and were given a brief introduction to sorting algorithms.  I'm excited to learn about algorithm analysis as I have no prior experience with it and it seems interesting.  The tutorial quiz this week required us to solve a proof using the structure and techniques taught in class.  Prior to this, we only had to write out the proof structure.  I was pleased that I felt comfortable solving the given proof as at the beginning of the proofs component of the course, I was daunted by how to solve proofs.  Also, our assignment 1 marks were posted and my group and I were happy and pleasantly surprised with our mark.  As well, assignment 2 was posted and we plan to start working on it on Tuesday.  Finally, on Friday, we spent the class working on a thought-provoking problem regarding pennies in two drawers and whether or not it was possible to create every number from 0 to the starting number of pennies by repeating two steps.  I'll go into more detail about solving this problem in future blog posts.

Week 6

For all my American readers, we celebrated Thanksgiving this past Monday, October 13.  As a result we had a shortened week and all my tutorials were cancelled so it was a light week.  Nevertheless, I still had two thirds of my 165 lectures.  We continued with proofs, and the more we did, the more my confidence increased.  The highlight of the week was getting back our term test.  I was very pleased with my mark as it was exactly as I had predicted because I realized my mistake after the exam.  This places me in a good position for writing the next term test, which will probably be harder, because my better test mark will have a greater weighting. 

Week 5

The first midterm was this week.  I read over the course notes, the annotated lecture slides and went over all the tutorial exercises, quizzes and the sample test that was posted.  Despite having an aid sheet with equations and examples of harder topics, I was still nervous about the test.  Luckily, our test was based fairly closely upon the sample test given, and I had written down the interpretations of the python code for the first question on my aid sheet.  I feel fairly confident that I did reasonably well on this test and I think I was well prepared.  This was my last midterm for a week, and I was looking forward to the long weekend. 

Week 4

Assignment 1 was due this week.  My group and I spent a few hours after tutorial on Tuesday adding explanations and making sure our answers were correct.  After submitting our answers, we felt fairly confident that we had correctly answered many of the questions, although there were a few that we were unsure of. 

This week finished off the implication / disjunction / quantifiers material and we started proofs.  I was a bit nervous because I had heard that proofs were essential, but difficult.  In lecture we were introduced to the basic structure of a proof and solved some "simple" proofs, such as proving that n squared is odd if n is odd.  I had no trouble with the structure or the math of the proof, but was at a complete loss as to where to start solving the proof.  One day, I had a revelation while studying for the upcoming midterm.  I realized that you start solving the proof from the assumptions you make at the start.  This epiphany made me much more comfortable with solving proofs, although I was still relieved when I found out they were not going to be on the midterm.