WEEK 10

Nearing the end of the semester, things are getting a bit hectic. Assignments are piling up in addition with all the studying we have to do for our other courses. As a result, I haven't been able to focus on this course as much as I hoped. Regarding the material, however, I feel like I am starting to understand Big-O and Big-Omega. The proofs we worked on in class seem to be getting simpler, but I will probably still need a lot of practice. We also got our test results back and I was extremely disappointed when I saw my mark. I truly thought that I did well on this test. I have yet to pick up my test to see what went wrong, but I intend to look at it very, very carefully to ensure I won't make those mistakes again on the final exam. Lastly, we are expected to get our third and final assignment in this course. I intend to get all my assignments for my other courses done and to strictly concentrate on this final assignment. I probably will not be on here for the next week due to studying, but I hope to make time for my final post. Until then, wish me luck! (Like, a lot of luck)

WEEK 9

9 down, 3 to go. Not only this course, but the entire semester has been moving by so quickly. This week felt pretty quick as well. We had our second Term Test and overall, it was straightforward. I feel like I did better on this test than I did the previous test. I had trouble proving the second claim. It involved using the definition of the floor of a function and disproving a conjunction. I knew that when disproving a claim, you have to negate it. Since it was a conjunction, De Morgan's Law had to be used, which resulted in a disjunction. With disjunctions, proof by cases had to be used. This was all I was able to come up with, so I was only able to write the structure. I'm hoping that I get a better mark than last time.

This week was also the due date for our second assignment. I felt fairly confident handing in the assignment, but when the solutions were posted, I realized that I had proved 2 false statements and falsified 1 statement. I'm truly hoping that I get part marks for my reasoning. As for the material covered, we just covered more Big O functions. I am getting a little more comfortable with Big O and Big Omega, but like proofs, I still need more practice. I think like all the material covered so far, the assignment will provide me with some clarification on certain aspects. Wish me luck for the next 3 weeks!

WEEK 8

With midterm week over, I was able to catch up on my sleep and actually stayed up during my lecture. This week, we covered the amount of time / number of steps taken for linear search and insertion sort, and the worst case scenarios of insertion sort - both upper and lower bound. Counting the number of steps for linear search was simple. When it came to looking at the upper and lower bound of insertion sort, things became much more confusing. However, as we went through it, the steps of proving each bound made sense. I realized that all of the steps would require creative and logical thinking, which I lack. Overall, the material was reasonable but I will need to look at it quite often.

In addition to this week's lecture, I have been working on the assignment. This assignment was a bit more challenging than the first, but it provided me with a lot of practice with proofs. Some of the claims, particularly Claim 1.2 and 1.3, were difficult to prove. These claims involved the formal definition of a limit. I'm not in MAT137 so I'm not that familiar with it. However, with the help of Prof. Heap and Prof. Zhang, I was able to prove each claim - at least I think I did. Hopefully I will do well on this assignment.

WEEK 6

(Apparently I forgot to publish this post.....so here it is! LOL)

Like I said last week, this week went by quickly. There was no lecture on Monday due to Thanksgiving, so we only had two lectures this week. This week we proved more expressions. The expression we're proving in lecture seem fairly simple to understand, but then again, I'm going to need more practice with proofs for the next test. We also got our tests results. To be honest, I thought I could have done way better. I made a lot of small and stupid mistakes that could have been caught if I looked it over more carefully. All of these mistakes added up and caused for my low grade. Next test, I am going to study even more and to look over my answers much more carefully. I am hoping that for the next test, I will do much better.

WEEK 7

To be honest, there were times during lecture where I have fell asleep because of all the work I have done. I've had two midterms this week and I have been working on multiple assignments simultaneously. As a result, my focus on this week's material has been on and off, so I am not entirely sure on what we covered.It appears, however, that we've begun to look a sorting. I have some background with sorting algorithms from high school, but then again, my knowledge in Computer Science from high school is extremely basic. To fully understand what we did, I visited http://firstweekoflogic.blogspot.ca/2014/12/week-7.html and from the looks of their post, I seem to understand it, which is a good sign!

We also got our second assignment this week. I looked over it as well. There are only two parts to it but there is some substantial work that has to be done and a great emphasis on logical reasoning. This assignment will be difficult and time consuming. However, I think that I will be able to complete all the questions and it will provide some practice for me. With all my midterms done, I plan to catch up on all the sleep that I have missed and to get my mind back into this course.

WEEK 5

Like last week, this week went by pretty fast. It was also a pretty hectic and stressful week as we had our first test of the course, and it was also my first test of the semester. The test was not as bad as I originally thought it was going to be. The process of making an aid sheet really helped me understand the material and clarified any confusions I had. The sample test that was posted was also a very big help since it was relatively similar in format and question type as the real term test. I am really eager to see what I got on the test and to see my mistakes. Overall, I think I did well. As for the topics discussed in lecture, that too was fairly straightforward. We looked at more proofs and just started to look at contradictions. With the test this week, we did not cover a lot of material, and with Thanksgiving on Monday, I expect the following week to the same as last week.

WEEK 4

Week 4 went by pretty fast. I guess it was because the material was understandable and working on the assignment made time go fast (I'll talk about the assignment later). This week, we looked at transitivity - the process of moving the negation through a series of quantifiers and predicates. This topic was easy to grasp. We then talked about double quantifiers. Again, this was an easy concept to learn. Lastly, we started to look at proofs. Proving statements was not my strong suit in high school. For instance, proving trigonometric identities was difficult for me to answer. I have a feeling I will need tons of practice with proofs in order to just get a basic sense of what I'm doing. Hopefully it will come to me. The example we did in class was clear, but then again, that was a simple proof.

Besides the lectures, the very first assignment was due. Had to spend a lot of time on Piazza and in office hours in order to get the assignment done. I understood what each question was asking but I was not entirely sure on how to answer them. For the first question, it asked us to negate an English statement and write the negated statement symbolically. At first, I negated the statement then wrote it symbolically. But after visiting office hours, it was recommended to symbolically write the statement, negate the symbols, and convert it to English. This greatly helped and made me understand what I was writing.

 Finally, the term test is coming up this week. Kind of nervous. Took me a while to understand the material up to now, so I hope I will get a better understanding while studying. I'll update you guys on my first test! Wish me luck this week!