Week 8: 14 Oct – 20 Oct

What did you do this past week?

This past week I worked on phase 2 of the SWE project with my group, studied for the SWE exam, and worked on my Algorithms assignment. Unfortunately, last Sunday evening I got sick suddenly and my symptoms got worse each day as this week progressed. Hopefully everything clears up soon!

What’s in your way?

Being sick definitely has thrown me off my usual routine and study habits. My laptop also essentially broke on me (as both the keyboard and the screen are barely functional anymore) and thus I am transitioning to using a new laptop. Ultimately, I feel that this week has been really rough on my health but hopefully I recover quickly so I can get back in the swing of things fully.

What will you do next week?

This coming week I will work on finishing phase 2 of the SWE project with my group. There also still several tasks we need to complete, such as linking our back-end and front-end. I also have a project in Computer Networks and an Algorithms assignment due next week so I will be working on those tasks as well. I will also be flying out near the end of the week so I need to get a head start on those assignments.

What was your experience of the peer-instruction exam?

Personally, I had an overall unpleasant experience due to my own technical problems that ultimately caused me to take the make-up exam. However, I will focus on discussing the exam format itself.

I thought that the questions were too difficult to do in such a short amount of time for the large majority of students, making the first attempt an overall stressful and unsuccessful experience. The exam also caused anxiety and panic for people due to the time constraints. I personally don’t like that the format of the exam was announced merely moments before we took it, catching us off guard. However, I can understand how the format of the grading may be slightly more beneficial. If someone knows they did not do well during the first attempt, they have a very good chance of redeeming themselves during the second attempt as students can work together with other students and essentially crowd-source solutions. However, I also have the complaint that if I was given more time for my solo attempt, I would have been less panicked and could have focused better on the exam. I feel that the overarching time crunch caused a lot of stress and anxiety that had me not be able to think as straight to complete the exam like a normal one (if I had the original time we thought it would be and thus I could focus better and actually do the problems on time). If I had the normal allotted time, I most likely would’ve had a higher success rate than the 45 minute crunch and then the 45 minute group effort and the average of the two scores.

What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?

My tip of the week is to get AppleCare (or the extended warranty equivalent) for your devices, especially expensive ones like laptops. Purchasing a new device is much more expensive and it’s a huge investment especially if your original device breaks within the first 2 years of owning it.