Day 1

[gfish]

I have survived my first day of classes and being a TA. TAing the lab section wasn't bad at all. I'm good at debugging, and I can usually explain things if I bother to slow myself down and think it through. CPSC 546 Numerical Optimization, on the other hand, is going to kick my ass from one end of campus to the other. It's not a good sign when the prof hands out a baseline homework which is 50% unknown math terms. It's really not a very good sign at all. I really want to take the course, but it just might be a foe beyond my abilities. I have to decide by next Tuesday.

Comments

[ilmarinen.livejournal.com]

Isn't it exciting to see all those unknown math terms though?

Thing is, I'm not sure my raw math skills are great. I was better than the vast majority of my classmates in that I put the work in to understand it, but I had a fear that I'd hit a wall at some point--"math geniuses only beyond here". Perhaps unfounded, just because Diffy-Q kicked my butt first round. (Part of that is that at diffy-q they give up really teaching the theory and resort to just rote memorization of a lot of techniques, or at least that's the emphasis. Being a concept learner, that hurt my brain.)

Keep us updated on the exotic land of Canadian grad school.

-B.

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

Dude, you should go on some quick side quests. Maybe you can level up fast enough to be up to the classes challenge rating.

[stolen-tea.livejournal.com]

Go for the math! Even when it hurts, it's good! (Or something...)

[creeves78.livejournal.com]

i sincerely doubt that it's a foe beyond your abilities...though it does sound like it's gonna be a bear. but a challenge can be fun...or something...

[filkferengi]

stoutfellow is a math professor both friendly and accessible, but I'm not sure if what you need is in his area of expertise. It might be worth a shot, though.

Good luck!