A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #93 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!
 
9-11am Internet Systems lecture

I know, I know. It’s been a while. In my admittedly pathetic defence, I was ill for the past couple of days (still am) and wasn’t really up for doing anything. Anyway, Today is the first day of the week before reading week which means it’s also the busiest week so far this year with all the coursework deadlines.

I actually managed to submit my INS coursework in today’s lecture which is a big weight off my shoulders. INS lectures just give the impression that the content is all memory work that can be easily memorised by rote learning or whatever works for you so there’s simply no point in starting this early.

11am-12pm Internet Systems tutorial

Unlike the lectures, the tutorial gives a completely different impression. There’s actually a numerical side to this module akin to CS1 however, it’s quite simple so there was no need to worry about not understanding the content now.

12-1pm Foundations of Computing 2 tutorial

These are by far the most useful sessions of this year. You actually feel like you’ve learnt something by the end of them. The content is getting a lot more straightforward which is reassuring since I actually thought FC2 was some insane module at the start of the year. Anyway, I guess the moral of the story here is that don’t judge a module before you complete it.

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #92 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!
 
11am-1pm Software Engineering Group Project lecture

Today’s lecture just went on for 2 hours straight with no breaks since the lecturer needed to catch a flight afterwards. The irony is that he meant for it to last 90 minutes hence the reason for no breaks but in the end, it still ended up filling the whole 2 hours.

These lectures are so similar to ISE it just feels like a time machine back to Year 1. The coursework on the other hand, is a completely different story. First off, it’s in PHP mostly (do I need to say more?) so it takes forever to do the training necessary to complete the assignments.

Also, the volume and frequency of assignments means if you don’t stay on top of your work from day 1 you will drown in coursework which is what I’m currently doing. Good thing reading week is next week so I can get a chance to catch up (said no one ever).

4-5pm Software Engineering Group Project practical

All I can say is, I’m super behind. Literally, I have nothing more to say.

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #91 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!
 
12-2pm Foundations of Computing 2 lecture

These lectures are getting so much easier than before it’s hard to believe the content is part of the same module given the disparity in difficulty. Anyway, a module should not be judged on the content but on the exam. Easy content means nothing if the exam is ridiculous so until then I’ll keep my verdicts to myself.

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #90 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

9-11am Internet Systems lecture

Since this lecture explored some familiar territory already covered by A-level Computer Science I decided to carry on doing my coursework. At first I thought the coursework for this module would be taxing and strenuous but after actually reading what is required, it turned out to be a walk in the park.

The only thing that does annoy me is the report that is required takes quite a while to type. This would be no problem in normal circumstances but when you’re drowning in C++ and PHP coursework, it just gets in the way.

11am-12pm Internet Systems tutorial

The tutorial sheet seemed pretty simple so I decided not to engage with it since I’d most likely forget by the time the exam comes. What do I do instead? You guessed it, coursework.

12-1pm Foundations of Computing 2 tutorial

Now that the ridiculously difficult part of the module is over, I can actually make sense of these tutorials. FC2 isn’t actually that bad once you think about it but, given the amount of coursework I have right now I honestly have no time to think about it.

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #89 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

11am-1pm Software Engineering Group Project lecture
This year is becoming so hectic I feel the only point in coming to uni these days it to work on coursework the labs. Seriously, with the added pressure of meeting internship and placement application deadlines there’s literally no time to go to lectures.

I still attended today’s lecture however had no intention of actually listening to the repetitive content. Instead, I simply sat in a corner with no distractions and got on with my work. One thing I’ve noticed this year is that you cannot afford to waste a single second of your time. Although, I have wasted a lot of time so far it hasn’t done me any good and I seriously regret.

Anyway, better late than never to make a change. For future sophomores, the best way to prepare for second year is to get all your internship/placement applications out of the way before­ uni begins. You’ll actually save so much time you may even get a minute or two to breath. Otherwise, it’s going to be a long year indeed (hey that rhymes).

4-5pm Software Engineering Group Project practical
Falling behind is becoming a normality at this rate. Today’s practical focused on Gradle and even though it was a relatively short one, I still didn’t get time to do it. Part of me is panicking but I know it will all work out in the end InShaAllah. Verily, after hardship comes ease.

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #88 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

12-2pm Foundations of Computing 2 lecture
One of the most ironic things that has constantly happened to me during uni is that whenever I start the latest, I am late. So, today I start at 12pm which is the latest in my timetable. One would think with less traffic and more time to get ready one would be on time. However, it’s the complete opposite for me. Whenever I start at 9am I somehow manage to get to uni on time but the days I start later than that are more complicated.

Anyway, what can I say about these lectures other than they’re extremely vague and it would concern me how little I am actually learning if I didn’t have the knowledge that you can choose which questions you want to do in the exam, thereby eliminating the need to learn this vague topic altogether.

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #87 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

9-11am Practical Experiences in Programming practical 
These labs are literally becoming a means of doing some last-minute tweaking for the C++ coursework due the next day and that's all I have to say about that.

12-3pm Practical Experiences in Programming lecture 
The content covered in these lectures is becoming a bit overwhelming to be completely honest. It's not even because C++ is annoying but also due to the length of the lecture itself. 3 hours is way too much for one sitting and there's no two ways about it.

4-6pm Software Engineering Group Project practical 
This lab consisted of more PHP work which I have not done at all since I've been busy with other coursework. I don't know whose bright idea it was to put the two most coursework heavy modules in the same semester. Anyway, at least next semester will be less taxing in that aspect.

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #86 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

9-11am Internet Systems lecture
These lectures seem to be getting shorter and shorter every week. I can’t remember a single lecture ever finishing half an hour early let alone 3 in a row. The content for this whole module can easily be covered by reading week but for some reason it was deemed that it should last the whole semester. Anyway, at least that makes it easier revising for the exam given how little content there is.

11am-12pm Internet Systems tutorial
There were only 2 questions on the tutorial sheet and the tutorial is supposed to last an hour. Need I say more? Either the lecturer is giving the false impression that this module’s content is very "crammable" or maybe this module shouldn’t even be a module, at least not by itself.

12-1pm Foundations of Computing 2 tutorial
This is where things escalated quickly indeed. Apparently, the topic being covered now; the Halting Problem, is the hardest one in this module. The tutor also gave some additional solace to us by revealing that not only does the course get significantly easier from here but that in the exam you choose which questions you want to do therefore eliminating any chance of encountering this horrible topic altogether.

Don’t get me wrong, FC2 is an interesting module. However, when things get really vague and abstract, you honestly don’t see the reason to learn it. Anyway, I have to get back to my coursework so that’s all for now.

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #85 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

11am-1pm Software Engineering Group Project lecture
These lectures are becoming as pointless as having a computer science degree when you’re going to work with Excel for the rest of your life. It literally recapped everything about software development lifecycles that ISE did in the previous year with a bit of extra and dare I say useless information.

So, when the break happened, I simply left to work on my coursework.

4-5pm Software Engineering Group Project practical
It’s amazing what you can accomplish in a 3-hour free period at uni vs what you can do at home in the same time. You can get more work done if you put your mind to it since you’re in an environment where everyone else is doing the same but, you can also end up doing nothing at all if you end up doing something with friends.

That’s one pro of working at home; it’s just you. Then again, so is your arch nemesis: the bed. One must tread a very fine line in order to keep working whilst on one’s bed. It can be very easy to get distracted and turn a coding session into a “chilling” session so beware.

Anyway, I got a lot more work done today than I expected so I think I can afford to deviate just this once…

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #84 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

12-2pm Foundations of Computing 2 lecture
Thursday is supposed to be the “easy” day of the week. There’s only once lecture of 2 hours with no tutorial after it. Today however, was anything but easy. FC2 went from being the most straightforward module this semester to an unpredictable heap of vagueness.

Today’s topic was the Halting problem and the lecture was so vague the only thing I can tell you about it is that it’s about problems being decidable or not. Literally, that’s all I took from today’s lecture. Hopefully, after doing the tutorial sheet somethings will start to make sense InShaAllah.

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #83 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

9-11am Practical Experiences in Programming practical
Tuesdays are super busy. In fact, they’re the busiest day of the week with 7 contact hours and only 2 hours of breaks between them. Programming in the morning isn’t ideal but, since the deadline for part 1 of the coursework was the very next day, ideals had to be put aside. Thankfully, I did actually manage to complete it in the lab so that was one thing off my mind.

12-3pm Practical Experiences in Programming lecture
This lecture carried on from last week and covered more complex ideas in C++. On one hand, it’s great to learn new syntax and language concepts and whatnot but on the other, it can get a bit overwhelming given the pacing of it all. There are deadlines for C++ coursework every Wednesday so the last thing one needs is a 3-hour C++ lecture on the day before. Anyway, everything will hopefully work out in the end InShaAllah.

4-6pm Software Engineering Group Project practical
For this practical we had to undertake some PHP training beforehand to be able to actually do the lab assignment. The training took the form of a 4-hour LinkedIn Learning PHP course which I simply binge watched the night before at x2 speed.

PHP is a lot like Java in some respects. However, once you actually start coding in it you realise the chasm of difference between the two. In a nutshell, one is useful and the other is not. I mean, I’d rather prefer doing some JavaScript or learning any one of it’s exponentially growing frameworks; something that would surely prove advantageous when working in industry.

Anyway, the day was exhausting to say the least but I guess I better get used to it given the frequency of these coursework deadlines. It’s going to be a tough semester indeed.

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #82 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

9-11am Internet Systems lecture
Unlike last year, where I always cruised through lectures and crammed before exams, I decided to do myself a favour and make my notes during lectures. The only problem with that is, as I swiftly learnt last year, that sometimes the content covered in the lectures can be completely useless.

Essentially, you end up making a large amount of well written (or typed in my case) notes only to find out near the end of the semester that the exam only goes over about a quarter of your notes. That’s the problem with university. The lectures just stretch out what little content they have so that it lasts the full year for it to be worth £9000+.

In actuality, one could complete a standard 3 year degree in a single year. Even today’s lecture ended half an hour early like last week. And to think that this is going to probably continue for the rest of the semester is unbearable

11am-12pm Internet Systems large group tutorial
The tutorials for this module seem so pointless I don’t know where to begin. There were 4 questions on the tutorial sheet, the answer for which were literally slides in the lecture itself. Considering the exam is going to be multiple choice, I seriously doubt we need to be able memorise reams and reams of material which is quintessentially waffle.

12-1pm Foundations of Computing 2 small group tutorial
This was the only useful session of the day. So far, this module is pretty easy but I doubt it’ll stay that way for long. Also on a side note, be prepared to have multiple consecutive sessions without any breaks. Mondays are a real mission from 9am to 1pm but looking on the bright side, the scheduled SEG discussion from 5-6pm turned out to be optional so at least I can go home straight away instead of waiting 4 hours.

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #81 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

11am-1pm Software Engineering Group Project lecture
This lecture made me realise one big difference between this year and last year; the amount of coursework. Last year, coursework for all the modules were pretty minimal apart from PPA. This year on the other hand, PEP (Practical Experiences In Programming) and SEG (Software Engineering Group Project) are very coursework heavy modules so you have to work continuously throughout the semester.

Gone are the days were you could come home everyday and “chill”. Procrastination is futile for the inevitable will bound to make you stressed enough to just get on with it. I mean, it’s only the first week back from the long summer and we’ve already been assigned a ton of coursework.

Contrastingly, FC2 (Foundations of Computing 2) and INS (Internet Systems) have very little coursework so one can afford to cram more towards the end of the semester. Anyway, I’m going to get really busy soon so It’ll be a challenge keeping this up too…

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #80 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

12-2pm Foundations of Computing 2 lecture

As the module name suggests, this is a follow up or sequel if you will, to last year’s Foundations of Computing (FC1) module. It started off pretty basic since it picked up exactly where FC1 ended; Turing machines.

Now that I think about it, most of the lecture was a recap of the content covered in the previous module with some new stuff that seemed pretty standard as well. Still, as introduction lectures go it wasn’t the worst, it just could’ve been more interesting.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #79 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

9-11am Practical Experiences In Programming Practical
Today is the longest day in the introduction week but it felt shorter than it was. First off, it was raining cats and dogs in the morning to the extent that every man, woman and child had a gigantic black umbrella to shield them. I, on the other hand, braved it all with nothing and arrived to my practical soaking wet.

Anyway, the practicals for this module always occur before the lecture for some bizarre reason so today’s lab just consisted of some warm up Java exercises. The module itself teaches C++ and Scala but I guess they just wanted students to get back in the saddle nice and easy (especially if you were someone like me who didn’t do any programming over the summer).

Apart from that we also had to set up our Github repositories for the module’s coursework and do a plagiarism and collusion quiz just as a reminder of what’s acceptable behaviour whilst completing the coursework.

12-3pm Practical Experiences In Programming Lecture

After the morning’s lab followed a one-hour free period which in hindsight, could’ve been used more productively to do some coursework. However, since it’s only the first week back I think I’ll let it slide.

Unlike yesterday’s lecture which finished early, this lecture actually took an hour longer than timetabled. Lectures are normally 2 hours followed by an hour’s tutorial however, this lecture simply went on for the whole 3-hour session.

After the course overview, it went through the basics of C++ which looked pretty doable but I doubt it will be that easy once I actually start coding my coursework. In contrast to yesterday’s Internet history lecture, this was actually useful content that you need to know so there was something to keep my eyes open.

This module is actually 100% coursework so it’s a good idea to keep on top of your work as the semester progresses and say bye-bye to cramming and last minute revision.

3-4pm Year 2 Re-Introduction lecture

Last but definitely not least was the annual introduction lecture. At first it seemed like the were just regurgitating last year’s lecture about basic student and admin stuff but then it went on to talk about the Year in Industry (YIN) program which caught my interest.

I’m currently enrolled on the integrated masters course but after today’s lecture, I’m genuinely thinking of switching to the YIN course. After all, if you want to work in industry after graduation then this is the way forward.

Hope this helps!

A Day In The Life Of A King's College CompSci #78 (ADITLOAKCCS)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

This year I’m going to try to write my blogs in segments so it’ll be easier to actually do them since I’m busier than ever. So, without further ado let’s begin.

9-11am Internet Systems Lecture

I should’ve written this on the train home yesterday but I forgot to charge my laptop. Nevertheless, since it’s the beginning of the year and well, it only happened yesterday I can pretty much recall how mundane it was.

That’s the thing with introduction weeks. Most, if not all the lectures just contain filler with a few bits of info here and there telling you useful stuff like how the course is assessed etc. As the name suggests, Internet Systems is focused on one technology alone; the Internet. You know, HTML and HTTP and whatnot.

Anyway, when having a glance over the topics covered in the module I was fairly confident some of them were covered in A level Computer Science, albeit to a lesser degree. Regardless, the first lecture simply talked about the history of the Internet in all it’s glory which I cannot detail here since I lost focus in less than half an hour.

You’d think that on the first day of the year one would restrain from not paying attention for at least one lecture but alas, the task was too great (probably because of the 9am start). Thankfully, that was the only session of the day so after a very long 2 hours I was free to return to my humble abode.

Now that I think about it the lecture actually ended 20 minutes early, further proving that it was all filler that the lecturer couldn’t even stretch to the whole 2 hours. That’s all for today, hopefully this year I’ll be doing these more regularly InShaAllah.

Hope this helps!

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!