← winterbreak

semester review, part 1

17 December 2019

Apparently it is now 4-ε months since I arrived here in Cambridge. Yeah, I couldn’t really believe it either, but here we are.

After a great many number of hours of classes, psets, and quizzes, I just took my (only) final exam today, so I’m counting this as the end of the semester™ … which means I can declare myself to be on w i n t e r b r e a k!

(I’d also like to welcome you, the reader, to winterbreak ❄, the blog-like thing you’re reading right now).

Anyway, what this means is that I can now officially review the semester, starting with the classes

18.701 Algebra I

MWF11; 3‑0‑9 → reality: 0.5‑0‑3.5

MIT's first abstract algebra class is, believe it or not, still taught by the legendary Mike Artin, who has been supposedly teaching it for the “last year” for two decades now. Although it was an abstract algebra class, the material was very much grounded in concrete examples——this is Mike’s philosophy of teaching. Compared to UCLA’s abstract alg class (shoutout to TacH), for example, MIT’s 18.701 is way more concrete.

TBH this class was a bit disappointing to me, though this probably sounds like a zeroth world complaint given that I haven’t been to a lecture for like three-quarters of the semester. (I decided that reading from the textbook takes less energy and is faster than going to lecture, oops.)

Just to be clear, I don’t think this was really due to the concreteness of the class as much as the lack of difficulty of the psets/quizzes. The topics were interesting and pretty difficult, and yes I ended up doing well, but I didn't feel like I actually grasped various topics in the class, which feels strange. Here’s hoping that 18.702 will be more challenging.

6.046 Design and Analysis of Algorithms

TR11-12:30 (lec), F12 (rec); 4‑0‑8 → reality: 1‑0‑3.5

Yes I’m bad at going to “morning” classes. I ended up only going to recitations because the lecture notes are posted online anyways, and the recitations go over the same material in one-third of the time.

Anyway, this was a pretty fun class (to quote the course syllabus: “This class has great material, so HAVE FUN!“). I really liked how organized the class was (in terms of grading / pset formatting / etc.) It’s also pretty accessible even though it had 6.006 (Intro to Algorithms) has a prereq and I didn’t really know much about algorithms going in——I think all that is really needed is knowledge of what BFS and DFS are, and those aren't hard to figure out. (Just read the links!) The quizzes were fun, but they were h a r d, so if you take the class, be prepared!

24.917 ConLangs: How to Construct a Language

TR2:30-4; 3‑0‑9 → reality: 2.5‑0‑1
(FTR I never missed a lecture, the 2.5 is because they end early.)

This is the perfect HASS class if you need HASS credit but don’t want to spend much time on the class. It is also the perfect HASS class in pretty much every other way. Great entertainment, great introduction to linguistics, great medium for creativity, great quotes such as "You're right. There are two hypotheses. Let's call them the right and wrong hypothesis. Someone could posit the wrong hypothesis." Definite recommendation if you’re at all interested in linguistics, or even if you just need a HASS class. Here is my language if someone is interested.

21H.001 How to Stage a Revolution

MW3 (lec), W4 (rec); 3‑0‑9 → reality: 3‑0‑3.5^*
(more like 3-0-1 most weeks and 3-0-10 when essays are due)

First of all, the name of the class is clickbait (or registration-bait, I suppose). The class is really about the history of three nations around revolutionary times: France, Mexico, and Iran. Nevertheless it was pretty interesting, except when I had to write an essay, and especially not when two essays are due within a week of one another. One part I really liked about the class is each recitation is exempt from one essay, and in place of it, we got to do posters instead——and when I say posters, these are posters made by a classic printing press, where images are cut from linoleum blocks and typesetting actually meant physically setting type. These are cool!

18.A34 Putnam Seminar

MW1; 2‑0‑4 → reality: 2‑0‑5.5

Who would have thought that the class with the least amount of units would end up taking the most time? Definitely time well spent though. The format of this class is that there will be a lecture on some (insert math topic) every Wednesday, and then a large problem set will be given, of which six problems need to be submitted on Monday, which is also presentation day, where everyone can volunteer to present solutions to problems. In hindsight, I probably presented too little, and well yeah, I should have presented more.

End of part 1; click here to go to part 2.