SLOG#10 Nov.29 2014

Times goes very fast. It seems our last lecture in this semester. I can’t tell why but second year study in the university of Toronto gives me feel that time goes so fast. I still can remember the first lecture and it seems just happened yesterday. It just like a dream within one night. I don’t want to talk a lot about our lecture this week because it was basically about assignment three. Even though it was really not an easy one but I still done it with my partner and the help from Prof. Larry Zhang. The question 6 in the assignment was kind of confused me and I finally solve it during Larry’s office hour. It was kind of embarrassed that I asked the same question three times during the office hour and I’m very appreciate about all hints he gave us and his patient explanation. Larry Zhang is definitely one of my favorite professors in the university and I can feel he prepared a lot before each of his lecture and he was trying his best to teach us. Hope I can do well in the final exam and I wish Mr.Zhang will be my prof next time.

SLOG#9 Nov.15, 2014

I didn’t do very well in Test Two. Really, I was confused about the last question, and I probably will ask Prof. Larry Zhang for remark. I used another way to prove the statement without using the definition of floor so I almost lose all marks of that question. I don’t think the question requires us to solve using the definition of floor and I have confidence about its correctness about proof.

I think today’s lecture is the hardest part I learned in this course, which is Big-O’s proof. I can understand the idea of how to proof it but it just very hard for me to do it by myself. I didn’t know when I should turn the power of variable and what should I do to get the result. Basically, I’m feeling I don’t have to plan to do the proof. And I think I also didn’t do well in this week’s tutorial. Even though it looks like I did the proof but I don’t think the value of c should be 1. I can feel there is a problem but I couldn’t find out. 

SLOG#8 Nov. 08

In this week’s lecture, Prof Larry Zhang introduced the idea of Big-O, which I think it was really a hard topic for me. Again it was a really long definition and it was confusing! for example, in the lecture it introduced that function f(n) is in O(n2) iff beyond the breakpoint B, cn2 is always above f(n). But what about the point before the point B? if the function is always above the function f(n) then it is actually easier to understand; but before the point B, cn2 actually below the function f(n) so that we cannot say f(n) is in O(n2). Then the lecture introduced the proof of Big-O. It looks easy during the lecture even though I believe I probably couldn’t do it by myself. This course always give me the feeling like this: the problem that solved in lecture looks very easy but it turns hard when I’m trying to do the problem by myself. The proof idea in the lecture was always clear and became mess by myself.

SLOG#7 Nov. 01, 2014

csc165 is becoming harder and harder and to be honest I have already experienced a quite hard time to handle it. I believe the proof part should be considered as the most important part of this course and I also can feel its difficulty. I did some past test of t2 and I feel sometimes it is hard for us to do the proof mathematically and I also kind of confuse about the proof structure; because last time my TA always tell me my way to do the proof is not the "professional" way (or I should say it is not the "formal" structure). But I don't know what the "formal" structure should be.

This week, we learned the expression of O and certain way of sort data (Bubble Sort, Merge Sort etc..) and I feel this is really not hard for me as long as I have learned this in both csc108 and csc148. So I think I still need to do more work on the proof part because this is really the most important topic in this course.

SLOG#6 Oct. 25, 2014

Again, there is a very high average in assignment one. Although I got a not bad mark as well, I still feel surprise about it. And at the same time, assignment two came out and I feel it was way harder than assignment one. But thanks for Prof Larry Zhang’s help during his office hour. He really helps me a lot and I’m very appreciate about it. There was really a lot of people in the office and I saw him even didn’t have any rest during these two hours and he really impressed me. He even extended nearly one hour for us in order to solve all our questions. And he was also extremely helpful! His idea was very clear and I would say I learned a lot during his office hour and it was even more efficient than lecture.  

In the lecture, it seems we finished the proof part and we learned certain elimination rules, such as negation elimination, conjunction elimination…etc. Moreover, we also learned the various sorting algorithms. I learned this in the other cs courses so it is really not a hard topic for me so I think this week’s lecture is fine for me. 

SLOG#5 Oct 18, 2014

We have our test back this week. It was surprised me that we have a very high average. To be honest I didn’t expect we will have an average above 70 because I thought in the University of Toronto there always a low average. The majority of mark I lose was all about the misunderstanding of the importance of order in the proof. I still thought the order wasn’t a big deal during the test so I lost some mark.

Today, the hardest part we learned was the idea of “floor”. It symbol itself was easy to understand but its proof was a hard one. Its definition was long and hard to understand and more importantly, it is not easy to use this definition to do the proof. The example in the lecture was simple (or looks simple) but it turns very hard to prove it by myself. I think definitely need more practice problem to work with and get more familiar with these kinds of problem.

SLOG#4 Oct 11, 2014

This week we learned more detail about proofs and the specific proof structure. The part I found hard was the proof of sequence. Even though the proof structure was an easy one, it was hard for me to know how to proof it. For example, in the example problem during the lecture, I don’t think I’m able to know the way to proof it by myself; I think probably more practice will help me a lot. 

SLOG#3 Oct 4, 2014

This week finally start to learn proof. I know this is an important topic in this course and probably 50% of problem will base on this topic. During this lecture, I learned it is important to assume the variables by the order in the statement and the order was actually important. Finally, I realized why they said my proof structure was not right; it was because I didn’t follow the order. But I remember sometimes my process of proof just cannot follow this order, so it actually confused me because I’m thinking what if we are solving a problem that we have to kindly “break” the rule? 

SLOG#2 Sep 27, 2014

Assignment one came out. I was very surprised that Office2010 is actually able to write down the symbols like existence, for all..., because I didn’t like using LaTeX to be honest. So I just use Office to do the assignment and the effect was good.

This week, we learned the expressions of conjunction and disconnection, and the negation of the statement. I think the materials we learned during the class was really not a big deal for me because it was very straight forward. However, the assignment was a hard one. And the problem I asked last week also appears on it, which was “One, only one student in X is more popular than Zorn”. It was not feeling well when I know I cannot use “x =1” but don’t know what else I can use to express it. So I plan to go office hour and ask this question.Assignment one came out. I was very surprised that Office2010 is actually able to write down the symbols like, because I didn’t like using LaTeX to be honest. So I just use Office to do the assignment and the effect was good.

This week, we learned the expressions of conjunction and disconnection, and the negation of the statement. I think the materials we learned during the class was really not a big deal for me because it was very straight forward. However, the assignment was a hard one. And the problem I asked last week also appears on it, which was “One, only one student in X is more popular than Zorn”. It was not feeling well when I know I cannot use “x =1” but don’t know what else I can use to express it. So I plan to go office hour and ask this question. 

SLOG #1 Sep 20, 2014

To be honest, this is actually my second time taking CSC165. It was so shamed for me to write this on SLOG because I definitely don’t want everyone know that I’m an “old” second year student but taking 100 level course. But suddenly I just want to write my certain experience about learning this course to help my classmates to get a higher mark this year. I would say that this course is not like math that you probably don’t need to go every lecture if you are smart. Learning csc165 is like building house that you have to learn it step by step with your professor! I only missed one lecture last year and it took me so long to catch up because I became completely cannot understand any course material just because of skipping one lecture!

For me, even though this is my second time taking this course, I find there is still a little difference than what I learned last year. And moreover, I find the second time learning helped me to understand the knowledge deeper than before; instead of just writing down the answer, I find I’m able to understand what exactly happened and why I get this answer. So although I have already known what we are learning in the lecture, I still go to lecture because I enjoy the feeling to get a deeper understanding of the course material. I also enjoyed my professor’s funny lecture and I felt I was not only reviewing the course but also learning something that I haven’t noticed before.

For the tutorial, I was little surprise about the topics it covered. I thought we learned Chapter 2 so the tutorial will cover both chapter 1 and 2. And I expect to write some sentences with symbols; but it only covered the Venn Diagram.

Therefore, for me, I like learning this course in spite of the fact that this is actually my second time. There is still a little different than what I learned last year and I enjoy going my current professor’s lecture. It is funny and it really engaged me to study.