entry fifty-nine
Course Reviews – 1A @ uWaterloo CS
Here's an honest review of all my courses: MATH 135 – by far my favorite course this term – I somehow enjoyed math more than CS – which for me is saying something. This course was especially rewarding and played right into my strengths. The concepts introduced in this course were not inherently complex, and solving the assignments required very little working memory. However, it was extremely rewarding because it's inherently a proofs question – and solving each question was its own dopamine rush. I appreciated how you had to think and innovate for each question, and loved that the assignments were only a few questions per week, but each would take time. Overall, it changed how I think about proofs and mathematical rigorousness, and was really fun to do in a group when chasing a particularly difficult problem.
CS 135 – my second favourite course. Am still miffed that we spent 4 months learning a language that will have no professional utility whatsoever. However, I do appreciate the arguments in favour of actually doing it the way Waterloo demands. Regardless, I think I found nothing challenging in the work given to us in the first three weeks – but boy, did the course pick up after that. I can confidently say that I have never been more challenged in CS in my entire life, and figuring out for the first tie how a lot of these concepts worked was a real pain. Just like the Math course, it has definitely changed how I view CS forever, and what challenging means. It has also given me a serious reality check in terms of how good I am at CS. Understanding a lot of this “logic” and coming up with the solutions and algorithms on the spot is genuinely challenging, and it's mind-blowing seeing how fast some other kids can come up with it and how easy an intimidating problem can become if you have clarity of thought and the patience to “think it through”.
The other three courses will have shorter reviews, because eh talking about academics is boring after a point. PHYS 121 – had organisational issues with this – was really hard to figure out how to prepare – and just grinding the assignments ended up not being enough. Was the same concepts as high school but just a higher level of questions, should have planned better.
MATH 137 – again the same CONCEPTS as high school, but explored deeper. Got lulled into not studying for it as much, because it had quizzes instead of assignments. Would have done just fine if I spent time on the course. SPCOM 223 – a fun enough course with decently interesting classes. Gained a slightly different perspective on public speaking, and definitely accepted that I was not hot shit, especially not anymore in Canada where English is everyone's first language. Also never really understood the grading scheme, feel like everyone just scored between 16-18 on each assignment. Huuuhhhhh??? (lmao throwback)