sLog csc165 Week 6

This week the professor covered proofs in the lectures. Earlier in the course when proofs were mentioned, I was concerned that they would be something completely new. I had never learned specifically how to do a proof in  high school. Other students in the class had talked about proofs and I was concerned that I should have prior knowledge about them. It was reassuring to learn that proofs are essentially math problems written out in a particular format. I found it interesting that for some of the easier proofs, a student would write out the answer algebraically on the side and then translate what he or she had written into a proof format. One of the difficulties I had with the proofs were the amount of steps to take between each part. Proofs are written with a specific audience in mind, in this case the proofs are written for a typical csc165 student. I feel like I would take more steps between parts than is necessary for my own reference, so that I can see how I got from each part to the next.

sLog csc165 Week 5

This week was mostly focused on the daunting mid term on Wednesday. This was my first formal test at U of T and the first time in the exam center, which was an important learning experience for future tests. I initially had trouble studying for this test. I started by reviewing my power point slides and notes, but I didn't feel like I was getting a solid understanding of the material. Later on I found it much more satisfying to redo the tutorial questions and quiz questions given in the tutorials. Answering the questions for myself, and learning from the struggles I had with particular questions helped with my learning process.
Doing the practice mid term questions also helped me prepare for the mid term. I had trouble with the first question on the mid term practice test, the question involved python functions written by Danny and at first I could not make sense of what they did. Eventually I translated what the functions were supposed to do I and I translated it into English so I could understand what the question was trying to ask me.

sLog CSC 165 Week 4

This week was mostly dedicated to finishing the first assignment. While some questions were straight forward some questions seemed impossible to answer, until you thought about the answer in a different way. It was rewarding to be able to answer questions on topics I learned in class in earlier weeks. I would have previously been unable to answer the questions on the assignment at the start of the year, so this assignment proved to me that I am learning something in this course.
For the assignment I worked with a partner (Paul Choi) which was immensely helpful. When going over questions that I was unsure of, it was helpful to have someone else to confirm your thought process was valid and also made sense to them. It was also helpful for catching the mistakes I made when answering questions. For some of my answers my logic was wrong, others the way I converted one statement to another was incorrect, or even when I copied the question from the assignment page to my document incorrectly.

SLog CSC165 Week 2

This week I had trouble keeping up with what the professor's presentation. When giving examples I felt that other students reached conclusions much faster than I did, and I was left behind working on the first example as he moves onto the third. To solve this problem for next week, I intend to print the slides of the lecture and go through them before class to have  better understanding while the professor is presenting.
I was having trouble understanding the difference between universal and existential claims, but I understood the content much better after the TA, Jason, explained it. Universal and existential claims are meant to be proven either true or false. When proving a claim it is easier to think if it is a big or small task to prove it true or false.
A universal claim is proven true only if every element is tested to be true. This is a lot of work and is a big task. However if someone wanted to find it false they would only need to find one element to prove it is false. This is small task to accomplish.
An existential claim is proven true if only one element is proven true. This is a small task to accomplish. To prove an existential claim is false one would need to test every element and prove every element is false. This is a big task to accomplish.