First time doing any kind of blog, hoping I don't make a complete mess of things. CSC236 has started, which is of course the continuation of my favourite course from first year, CSC165, in which I achieved a whopping 53%. I do intend to do better this year, I already feel like I'm grasping the content much more than I was in 165, despite my recent failure in the quiz. Speaking of the quiz, I completed both quiz practice questions, and went over them before the tutorial. From the tutorial I knew that I did them correctly, but I feel as if the time spent going over the questions sort of messed me up. It seemed as though it was meant to help the people who didn't do the questions, and the structure of the proofs in the tutorial was slightly different than the one shown in class. Of course, if I really knew my stuff I wouldn't be making excuses for messing up on such a simple one question quiz.
Did I forget almost everything about proofs over the summer? Probably. Simple Induction and Complete Induction seem almost foreign to me, but I will try my best, with hopefully better results than last year.
I suppose I should discuss my feelings on the methods of induction we've been taught so far in this course. Simple Induction seems straightforward enough (obviously not enough to pass a one-question quiz though) and Complete Induction makes sense to me. Everything seems to make sense when it's explained for you step-by-step doesn't it? It's when you have to figure it out that you realize you have no idea what you're doing for the first five to ten minutes. That's how you, or at least I, learn I guess. In retrospect, I probably should have done more than the two practice questions, I'll make a point of spending more time with this course's material, as I know from experience that proofs are not my strong suit, and neither is discussing them, as I'm sure you'll find out if you continue to read what is sure to be the greatest proofs blog ever created by a student from Victoria University (hopefully you get that one). Happy reading!
