Robert’s blog

Today was my first day as a freshman studying computer science at University of London. Therefore, I spent some time setting up my notebooks and writing down the important information for each course I’ll be taking, like bibliography, and the assessment method. These courses are: Introduction to Programming I (ITP1), and Computational Mathematics (CM).

I also came up with two lists to help me organise myself; one to keep my study time distribution present at all times, and another one to keep track of the week we’re in. The distribution of the following 22 weeks should look something like this today onwards:

• Monday: ITP1, 2 to 3 hours.
• Tuesday: CM, 2 to 3 hours.
• Wednesday: TP1, 2 to 3 hours.
• Thursday: CM, 2 to 3 hours.
• Friday: CM, 2 to 3 hours.
• Saturday: ITP1, 2 to 4 hours (only if necessary).
• Sunday: CM, 2 to 4 hours (only if necessary).

With this in mind what I want to achieve is 6 to 10 hours a week of study time for ITP1, and 8 to 13 hours a week for CM.

Additionally, I took notes on the ITP1 lectures for weeks 1 and 2, and solved all the exercises meant for those weeks.

Today I revised units 10 and 11 from the book on foundational mathematics, and also started watching the first lectures on the second course of the Object-Oriented Programming Specialization.

These units covered simpler topics, namely, transposing formulae, and a general definition of what an equation is, how to solve them, how to go about quadratic equations, and strategies for systems of equations.

So far unit 9 from the book on foundational mathematics has been the one that took me the longest to complete.

This unit went over the algebra behind expressing single factions as the sum of two or more simpler fractions (partial fractions).

It is an interesting topic, it really is, but going over all of the exercises was a time consuming task.

It took me a little bit longer than I had actually expected because, yesterday, a friend dropped by and we spend the whole afternoon chatting, but today I completed all the exercises I had remaining from unit 8 of the book Foundation Maths, 7th edition, that is part of the recommended bibliography for Computational Mathematics.

I also completed the first course of the Object-Oriented Programming Specialization that we, students joining as part of the spring 2024 cohort, were gifted, and were encouraged to take.

I know it’s probably too early to start revising the Syllabi and the specification of the modules I’ll be taking next month, which are:

• Computational Mathematics (CM1015)
• Introduction to Programming I (CM1005)

But getting up to speed with the academic learning pace is something I must achieve if I want to even consider graduating with first class honours.

Therefore, despite courses stating on 8 April, I’ve already started going over some of the recommended bibliography for Computational Mathematics thanks to the online library service that the University of London has. In particular I’ve completed units 1-7 from Foundation Maths, 7th edition, a book written by Anthony Croft and Robert Davidson, during the past week, and I’m planning to complete unit 8 during what is left of today.