The Third Six Weeks 10/21/13

Since my second blog post we've done a lot of stuff in APCS. We took the first six weeks exam at the end of the first six weeks (shocker) and I felt very good about how I performed on it. I only missed one question that was as of a result of not realizing the scanner method next() applies to the next word and not the next character. This is a more minor memorization error that I don't have to worry about in real world programming because of the ease of looking up any methods I'm having trouble remembering and the ability to directly test out and troubleshoot code. The part I considered most important was the free response and I was very happy that the code I wrote was all correct. I had studied a lot for the exam and was glad to finally understand how to make a class file. Prior to the test the concept of making classes was still arcane to me and hadn't really clicked in my mind. Now I can easily navigate through initialization and default constructors as well as accessor methods, modifier methods, and toString methods. We have also gone through boolean logic, else and else if statements, while loops, for loops, and files. As we progress further into java I am finding the class to be more difficult. The most recent quiz we took on loops I felt was the most difficult quiz we've taken so far and the labs are getting noticeably more complex and harder to troubleshot. I still believe the biggest challenge of the class is the fast pace it moves at combined with the importance of understanding each topic. Missing one day, especially one where an important topic is covered, can get one very behind in the class. I will sometimes find it difficult to grasp the topic we learn in class until having used it in a couple labs and worksheets, and so will have a sense of lagging behind that I have to work a little harder outside of class to fix. I liked the most recent lesson on files because it begins to incorporate outside files into our java code, something I'm excited about doing. I've always been interested in how the jump from independent programs inside the java virtual machine we've been doing to code that modifies actual outside files on the computer occurs.