The School Thread

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Homesick
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The School Thread

Post by Homesick »

I know many of us are students, and I couldn't find a thread about school-related stuff so I thought I'd start one!

Do you want to let off steam before a difficult exam? Do you want to tell us how great your classmates are or how much you like the subjects you're taking? Did the teacher call you a spacehead? Share everything here!
Jakob Kallin, webmaster of EnterTheSoulAsylum.com

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Re: The School Thread

Post by Homesick »

Today I took the most difficult exam we've had so far in my Computer Science programme: Algorithms. Basically, it's about solving tricky computational problems in a smart way. It's one of the classes that's widely feared by students—and with good reason, because last year's exam had a pass rate of only 30%. Needless to say, I studied very hard to have a good chance of passing.

As expected, the exam was indeed tricky, and at first glance I was pretty unsure about how much I'd be able to solve. After sitting for the maximum four hours, though, I walked out feeling pretty confident that I'd make it, especially after checking that my classmates mostly got the same answers.

So tonight I celebrated by buying a huge pizza, a bag of potato chips and a big chocolate bar and then lying down in the sofa to watch an episode of X-Files on DVD. After several weeks of intense studying, it felt great to finally have the exam done and also enjoy the rest of the week off! To top it off, the classes I'll be taking for the rest of this year all look to be easier than Algorithms, so I'm looking forward to that!
Jakob Kallin, webmaster of EnterTheSoulAsylum.com

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philipgar
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Re: The School Thread

Post by philipgar »

I know the feeling of dealing with too much school. I'm hoping to be defending sometime next summer, and I'm sure life will be a living hell between now and then, as I get more papers ready, apply for faculty positions, write my thesis, etc. Anyhow, just looked on youtube, and I had never seen this version of the song... Wow, it's quite amusing, and amazing watching Bob's guitar work.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJKRRpFc4g8[/youtube]

Phil
Last edited by philipgar on Thu Oct 21, 2010 12:53 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The School Thread

Post by Homesick »

Haha, "fuck school"... Sometimes it's nice to be able to have a simplified opinion like that. ;)
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Re: The School Thread

Post by crawl »

I feel the pain. Can you say past and future value of money and annuities. Test tomorrow. Taking a study break to see if there is anything more interesting on the SA web site then LIFO and FIFO. Yikees.

I glad you feel good about the exam Jim. It is usually a good sign and always great to celebrate and chill afterward.

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Re: The School Thread

Post by Homesick »

crawl wrote:Taking a study break to see if there is anything more interesting on the SA web site then LIFO and FIFO. Yikees.
That's a funny coincidence, because the terms LIFO and FIFO are used in algorithms as well, where they describe a stack and a queue respectively.
I glad you feel good about the exam Jim. It is usually a good sign and always great to celebrate and chill afterward.
I agree that it's usually a good sign. But I believe you meant "Jakob" and not "Jim". ;)

Oh, and good luck with the test!
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Re: The School Thread

Post by crawl »

Sorry for mixing up my moderators! For me LIFO and FIFO are regarding inventory. Easy to mix up acronyms too I guess.

Hope your results were good.

Meg

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Re: The School Thread

Post by philipgar »

crawl wrote:Sorry for mixing up my moderators! For me LIFO and FIFO are regarding inventory. Easy to mix up acronyms too I guess.

Hope your results were good.

Meg
Wait meg, are you saying lifo and fifo mean things other than last in first out and first in first out? I've never heard that, but I've been entrenched in the CS terminology for years now.

Phil

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Re: The School Thread

Post by Homesick »

So tomorrow I'm starting my two new classes: "Testing, Debugging and Verification" and "Programming Paradigms". As lame as it sounds to a non-programmer, I've really been looking forward to the Testing course; I've written software with so many bugs (including several frustrating ones on this very website) that I'll definitely appreciate everything they can teach me about writing software that actually works. ;)

Any classes that you are looking forward to, or dreading? Why?
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Re: The School Thread

Post by crawl »

Not saying different LIFO and FIFO, Last in First Out and First in First Out I am using for inventory valuation. Makes sense that it is the same for other things like stacks and queue. Am assuming that is the CS you mention.

Next up valuation of intangibles...

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