Doing very well in csc165, I came into CSC236 very confident. The first lecture grabbed me by surprise however in that, there was very little review, and we went straight into the first concept. Having not done summer school I was caught off guard like a deer in the headlights. The first few lectures I had trouble following the last few proofs. But I took them home and looked them over and eventually I was able to following along in class and understand the proofs.
The assignment was challenging but a good challenging in that with careful consideration, insight, time, and a few helpful bits of advice from Danny, I was able to complete it with time and I am confident in my answers. When solving problems of a logical nature such as the ones in assignment one, I think I have a few unique problem solving methods to share and some not so unique methods.
A unique thing I do that I often find helps me at least get a rough solution is I move away from my desk, lie in bed face down and think about the problem, list of facts we are given and facts I need to get to and try and find a logical bridge between the two. Most of the time an idea (ideas) pops into my head and most of the time it really helps.
A not so unique thing I do is I often write down examples of the problem and try to notice a pattern that can be useful to solve the problem.
I am looking forward to perhaps learning some new methods of problem solving methods that work for me.
Those sound like two useful techniques. If you can move away from the paper and hold the problem in your head, then you're mind will be working on it even while you're doing other things. Working small examples helps convince you that you're actually proving something that's true, and (with luck) you'll spot a pattern.
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