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!