So, we finished the first week of Semester 2, and man, oh, man, let me tell you a thing...it's gonna be a tough semester. Now, I'm not new to the world of stressful deadlines and seemingly impossible problems, so I'm sure everything will turn out fine. But, after that very relaxing winter break, it feels like I've gone from 0 to 60 in 2 seconds flat.
Now, just to break down my classes for the future:
Software Engineering
How to plan out a large piece of software before actually coding anything.
Algorithms and Data Structures
How to best create algorithms for most efficient use of memory and details on how data structures work
Master's Team Project
Our team of 5 will build a command line and online version of the game Top Trumps
Internet Technology
How to properly build and create online software via many different programming languages (i.e. Python, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, etc).
Human Computer Interactions (HCI)
How to properly build User Interfaces to be most efficient and interactive with the user
Advanced Programming
More advanced lessons on Java based programming
Last semester we had five classes, and now we have six. To say that's a big load is not joking as each class expects us to put roughly 100 hours of work into them. That's 600 hours of work in roughly two and a half months. Time to buckle up, partner!
The only "oh, shit" moment I had that week was in Algorithms and Data Structure's when, in the lab, we were asked to break the quadratic equation down into a pseudo-code algorithm. Now, I don't know about you, but that last time I saw about, thought of, or heard that equation from anyone's mouth was in 2012, in my algebra class at DSU. So, you know, that's only 6 years ago. I'm gonna be honest in saying that I've not felt that stupid in a reeallly long time. If you're ever feeling too cocky in life, too on top of everything you got going on, just do the above and I promise you'll be humbled right quick. It had me like
I've not relied on google that much in a long time. It had me searching stuff like "can you square root a negative number" and "what does ± mean". The tutors were going around saying "we're not trying to teach you math", like boy what do you think we're trying to do right now? Break dancing?
The only good news was that half the class felt the same way, so that was pretty comforting. Other than that, though, I'm pretty sure I can get through it. It's quite a bit of work, but you just take it one assessment and day at a time. Let's go, Semester 2, show me what you got!