LogFAQs > #888064509

acesxhigh posted...

computer science is nice because it lends itself very well to a kind of final "test" where you can apply the concepts you've learned to a hands-on project, but we often find ourselves drawing boxes or hand-writing Java code on a piece of paper for 3 hours instead.

in software engineering, you might be drawing a lot of diagrams. otherwise yes, it's going to be hand written code, which feels really weird and there isn't a lot of preparation for, as well as obviously a lot of math, depending on the specific course. but, I mean, there's no exam easier than a computer science exam, for me anyway. again, it's only bad if you aren't prepared for it. really, comp-sci exams are often *embarrassingly* easy.

for example, some classes (harder math courses are often like this) will teach you concepts A, B, and C. unfortunately, what's on the exams is not A, B, and C, but G, H, and I, which were implied by D, E, and F, which were themselves implied by A, B, and C. and you'd only know that by doing the exercises.

comp-sci is almost never the hard version. you learn A, B, and C, and the exam is A, B, and C. if there's any challenge, it will be in the assignments. which is because that's where you have to prove you can actually program, not on the exams.

acesxhigh posted...

next I'll assert for most people, final exams are incredibly stressful. some students just break down during exam period, you see people crying in the library, it's pretty gnarly. there would have to be a pretty good reason for us to have finals if they're so bad.

I remember taking finals, there's almost always that guy who lets out a huge sigh every 5 minutes, and spends most of his time fidgeting in frustration. but that's a guy who's not prepared for the exam. I've been that guy at least a few times. all you have to do to avoid that is be prepared for the exam.

acesxhigh posted...

typically students will cram just so they can pass 4 finals in a 2 week period and then forget everything anyway.

'cramming' shouldn't be necessary. heck I don't even 'study' for exams. that's not what I mean by prepared. the trick, that I admit took me a long time to learn, is that the whole point of all of this is to make yourself an expert. the problem with school is treating it like this game where you learn things and then are tested on it, and how well you played the game determines your score/grade. that's not how to look at it.

if you're an undergraduate, it's your 'job' to make yourself an expert at whatever field you're pursuing. that's the goal of being a student. this is why it's important to select a major that you're compatible with.

at first this is really hard, because there's just so much to learn. but if you focus on becoming an expert, eventually you get to a point where it's the opposite. you start yearning for new things to learn. what is left to learn that I haven't already covered? then you become *eager* to take a new course that teaches something you don't already know, because that's what you're there for. if there's something to learn that you don't already know, that's what you're craving!

(and then getting into graduate school, you begin to reach the limit of what there is to know about your field, and it starts being up to *you* to push the field forward, if you can.)

so, with the mindset of "it's my job to make myself an expert", when you take a course, don't approach it like you're playing a game where you see how little work you can get away with and still get a good grade. approach it like this is an opportunity to become a literal expert at this subject. read the damn textbook. do the assignments as well as you can and use them as tools to identify what you're missing, and then fill in the gaps. master the subject and the exam is cake.
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