The Third Six Weeks Part Two 11/10/13

In these last three weeks I have learned topics that are very important both on the AP and programming in general. We learned arrays and loops, which are both very useful and make up a large portion of the AP. With the introduction of these topics the programming concepts we cover continue to become more complex. While I was able to understand arrays fairly quickly, in part thanks to being taught them by Weston a week earlier, I had much more difficulty understanding two dimensional arrays and embedded for loops. I had to study and practice them at home in order to really understand them in preparation for the six weeks exam, only later to discover they weren't on the exam itself. Regardless I'm glad I took the time at home to understand them, and I often feel like I go through the class not fully understanding concepts until I take the time outside of class to more fully review them. The quizzes are also becoming more complex and taking more time. With the introduction of loops the possibility of messing up questions, especially by running the loop an extra time or not enough times, jumps significantly. Seeing slightly more complex questions and understanding the ones on the AP will likely be even more difficult, I'm a little concerned about the time requirements on the AP. Quizzes and exams tend to take me a while as I like to be thorough, but I am trying to work faster in preparation for the more time limited AP environment. We also began partner programming, which I in general enjoy so far. Working with Weston is a mixed blessing, as he knows a lot of the concepts already and helps me with them, causing us to finish faster and giving me more free time, but our faster pace over topics he already has a grasp on sometimes leaves me not understanding things and glossing over them, only to have to come back and review them later. I try to combat this by asking frequent questions and forcing him to explain concepts I don't understand to me. Overall I'm happy with the more advanced techniques we are beginning to learn.