I returned to my apartment in Austin after four weeks of winter vacation. Once I got settled in I started preparing for classes to start and checking out all of the textbooks required for my classes. Once classes began I had to put myself into a different mindset than the one I had been in for four weeks. I ended the week with plenty of studying and homework, but not near the amount I will have in the coming weeks.
What's in your way?
The main obstacle in my way currently is the fact I don't know much at all about the upcoming projects. This includes things like how long they will take me to do and even what the projects will be about. I realize that by the end of the semester I will be familiar with what the projects are about, and any tools they might use, but I am still nervous.
What will you do next week?
Next week starts the real challenge because that is when most classes start giving you the real assignments so I will get to see what a real work-load for a week will look like. I will also start the required reading for all my classes which means I can discover which books will be interesting or not this semester. I am also taking Algorithms this semester, and I have to get used to doing math and proofs again since it has been a few semesters since I have done any.
What are your expectations for the class?
In this class, I expect to learn a lot about C++. It is an interesting language that I have no experience with, but have heard a lot about, and seen some people code in. I expect to get more familiar with group work than I already am, although I don't like not being able to have the same partner multiple times.
What's your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?
I found the idea of asserts as computation comments interesting. I had never thought of them that way in previous classes, and I really like the idea of using them as such in the future, though careful not to overuse them or use them to check user input.
