The Muslim CompSci: March 2019

Friday 22 March 2019

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #77 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

One thing I’ve found particularly interesting over the past few days is how many people in my cohort are “ghosts”. For the fourth and final programming assignment, we have to work in groups of 4 and the amount of people on the discussion forums asking to join groups is actually astonishing.

So, I think it’s extremely vital to make friends at uni at an early stage because there will be times when you are put in circumstances like the one I mentioned. Yes, lectures can be a complete waste of time so people refuse to come in but that’s not all university is about.

Studying is great and all, but I think a lot of people miss out on the whole experience of university by never coming in. So, my advice to all future undergrads is, even if you don’t want to come into uni I strongly suggest you do at least for the first few weeks just to make friends.

In fact, one of my friends, who’s a graduate computer scientist working at a start up which is based at uni told me university is far more than the piece of paper you get at the end of it.

The main 3 benefits or purposes of university are to make connections with fellow colleagues and even teachers, gain a vision of what you actually want to do with yourself after you graduate and to enhance your personal development.

So, don’t be the person who just attends university for the degree, it’s so much more than that!

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #76 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

It’s actually coming to the point in the semester where everyone is drowning in coursework. The second Data Structures coursework was released today so that takes the total of current assignments due to 4. Database Systems is due by the end of the week and the programming and software engineering module projects are due near the end of the semester.

The interesting thing is the sort of situation occurred in the first semester too but I was a lot more organised so I got everything done sooner, rather than later. This semester is a completely different story. I don’t where I lost it but, my motivation to do any work whatsoever has diminished significantly since the holidays.

Regardless, it’s crunch time so I have to find it again quickly otherwise there’ll be consequences that will most definitely cause me to rue the days I wasted not doing work.

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #75 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

Well, it’s been a while. I don’t know why I suddenly stopped writing these. Maybe I needed a break or maybe I was just too caught up with work but it’s immaterial now.

What matters now is that I somehow remember what happened during all the days I missed or at the very least, write an adequate substitute for each day I can’t. So, let’s work our way backwards and hopefully, by the end of this train journey I’m on right now, I’ll have blogged this week’s blogs InShaAllah.

Anyway, in the most recent programming lab we had the pair programming project interviews to ensure both partners in the pair worked together to complete the assignment. My pair, is a complete ghost so never really comes into uni.

Naturally, I had to do all the work which I didn’t mind too much since the coursework was straightforward. We were tasked with programming a predator/prey simulator which, as the name suggests, is a simulator that simulates the behaviour different predator and prey animals over a designated period of time.

If it had to be coded from scratch then it would be somewhat challenging but thankfully, the base code took care of most of that and we just had to make extensions based on the tasks accordingly.

Anyway, the interview went surprisingly well since I trained my partner to say whatever was necessary from his part and in 5 short minutes, it was all over. All I’m waiting for now is for the marks to be released.

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #74 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

Now that the process of “backtracking” my blogs is in full flow, I can’t even keep track of what days I actually attended university. This wouldn’t have been a problem in the first semester, where I only missed a day, or maybe two. This semester however, I’ve missed more days than I’d care to count.

Regardless, I didn’t do it for no reason. After all, you’re paying 9K or more year for uni so missing days only works against you. So, it’s important to attend everyday otherwise, what’s the point?

Naturally, there will be occurrences throughout the year that will make it difficult for you to attend but, I’d strongly advise to attend whenever possible. Also, depending on if your uni checks attendance, you pretty much have to attend a certain amount of classes/labs/lectures etc. so you don’t end up on their “blacklist”.

No seriously, one of my friends who is an international student never attends and he actually got a letter stating they would revoke his student visa should he continue not attending. Anyway, as aforementioned, the seriousness of the matter varies with your uni but you should attend simply because you’re paying for it.

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #73 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

Now that the semester is but weeks away from ending I’ve just realised how quick this year has gone. Technically, it’s not over until the dreaded summer exams are sat in May but still, the year has progressed far quicker than initially assessed at the start of the year.

I guess when you get into the swing of things the weeks really fly by. In fact, I can still remember my very first lecture despite it being so long ago. The same can’t be said for any year in school. Lessons were ubiquitous and not much changed throughout the year so it’s hard to designate any special importance to the first lesson of the year.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that lectures don’t get mundane but I suppose it’s because it was my very first lecture ever that I remember it so well. Plus, in school, all your teachers are constantly droning on about the importance of achieving the best grades possible whereas in university, it is seldom the same.

Anyways, that was today’s insight. Be sure to check out tomorrow’s post!

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #72 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

Even though I’m blogging these in reverse order now since I’m so behind I can’t help but include some interesting extracts from the present every once in a while. For instance, last week I was stressing about getting my assignments done and here I am just waiting for the semester to end now that I’ve pretty much finished them.

Anyway, I think it’s important to manage your time effectively so you don’t bogged down with work as the semester progresses. I can’t say I’ve followed this advice entirely but I will definitely try to implement it for next year when things are bound to get more difficult.

That’s all for today, be sure to check out tomorrow’s post too!

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #71 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

One thing I’ve realised about some modules this year is that they actually don’t cover a lot of content but since they’re supposed to last a semester, they’re stretched out unnecessarily to do so.

That isn’t necessarily a bad thing if the “filler” is somewhat interesting but, if it isn’t, which is this case in most instances then, it drags the module from a good one to the point where you hate it. That’s my take on it anyway.

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #70 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

Tutorials are so useful. They make lectures truly obsolete. For instance, in an hour’s tutorial of data structures I basically learnt about 4 hours’ worth of lecture content. Although, I am significantly helped by the fact that a lot of the content in this year still correlates to A level computer science.

Still, the usefulness of tutorials can’t be understated. Labs, although similar in class size to tutorials, can be useless at times since you can complete the lab work anywhere at anytime if you don’t require the teacher.

That’s all for today. This post might have been shorter than most but as always…

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #69 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

It’s nearing the end of the semester and in fact, the year and the number of people at lectures is dwindling exponentially. This, for some reason, does diminish your own motivation to attend and more importantly, pay attention in lectures.

Naturally, you think if the majority is doing something, it must be right. Wrong. That would be a sheep’s logic. However, I must admit some lectures are totally pointless, like today’s software engineering lecture.

But that’s besides the point. You should always attend whenever possible. After all, you are paying for it.

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #68 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

I can’t believe I haven’t fully internalised this myself yet but, one should always get everything ready the night before school, or in this case, university. So, even if you wake up late, the time it takes for you to get ready is minimal.

Ideally, your bag should already be packed and your clothes sorted the night before. Today, I was slightly late since I underestimated the time it would take me to iron my shirt. Usually, what I wear doesn’t require me to do anything of that nature but every once in a while, some clothes have to be pressed.

Anyway, the point is, get everything ready the night before. Simples.

Hope this helps!