CSC165H1 --Week 1-2

  It is great to be a first-year student at the University of Toronto. My first week of study had been very busy, but I feel delightful to learn many new knowledge. I chose CSC165H1, Mathematical Expression and Reasoning for Computer Science, because it interests me a lot and I want to challenge myself with its logic. In fact, the first class had proved that I made a right decision: this course is SO AMAZING!

  For the introductory section, we basically talked about the course outline, marking scheme, tutorial and how to be successful. There was a lot of information and professor’s joke always made us laugh. Then, we learnt about precision and problem-solving skills. Particularly, the question on inferring teenagers’ ages was the most interesting one. When I first read the question, I only got the product of 3 ages was 36. However, this point can not lead to a unique solution because other combinations exist. If you re-read the question, you might find other hiding information, such as “the eldest plays the piano” implies there can’t have two eldest ages at a time and “the sum of their ages can not infer about the result” implies that the sum is not unique. Therefore, with these information, it is easy to infer the answer is 9,2,2. This is indeed interesting, isn’t it?
   Increasingly, this week we learned about quantifiers, Venn Diagram, sets, predicates and implications. As a student majored in mathematics, it is fortunate for me because I learned concepts about sets and Venn Diagram before. However, in my opinion, implication is the most difficult concept because it is somehow abstract. For example, the sentence “there are no rights without responsibilities”, I firstly thought it meant: in order to gain rights, we must make the assumption of having responsibility. However, this was wrong. If we have responsibilities, it does not 100% implies about having rights. Conversely, if we assume to have rights as a condition then responsibility becomes a requirement. I believe I need to exercise and think more on these questions.
  It is important to be prepared for class because sometimes, the teaching speed is a little bit fast. For instance, I did not know where to find the lecture PPT online when I attended my first class and this made the whole lecture hard. I always got lost in professor's speaking. However, starting with the second week, I read the PPT before class and this made a lot easier for me to understand the course. Therefore, It is always important to keep the habit of being prepared for class.

  In addition, the tutorial class went pretty well, it is a small class with around 20 students. And each one of us has a chance to ask questions. Firstly, I didn't know how to convert language into mathematical expression for the question#1 on my assignment, because I didn't know how to deal with 2 elements in one expression. However, TA explained the answer very well and now I am confident in doing these kind of questions. I really like tutorial learning.

  Overall, CSC165H1 of this week was full of fun and I am really looking forward to the upcoming classes.