Endurance

With a few weeks of class left, I hope to continue to do better until the exams are finished. The term test was actually not that bad as I expected. Having practicing and understanding the proofs from the lectures, tutorials, and the internet, these proofs are not impossible. At first I was really worried that I could not even understand the most simplest proof such as the ones in the assignment. But once I started redoing them, it started to make more sense. A colleague I met through my astronomy tutorial also had the same predicaments as I had with proofs. He had told me that one of his classmates asked how the professor was able to do these proofs like it's nothing and he responded "hours, hours, and hours, or practice." I feel more confident doing proofs and now which is a relief. Now onto the material covered this week, the proofs of Big O and Omega don't seem that hard but once again, practice makes perfect. The topic of algorithm analysis does seem strange in how people have calculated the steps in the while loop. The loop guards, 'initialize' variable and the codes under the while loop are understandable but the while loop will take some time to fully understand why the formula is calculated like it. In the end, I feel more confident and motivated to work on the material covered in this course than to brush it off to the side in hopes of not doing this material again (which I know I have to do since the specialist degree requires 3 courses of these.)

Every calamity is to be overcome by endurance. -Virgil