---
# System prepended metadata

title: semester review (2024 spring) + summer vacation

---

# semester review (2024 spring)

大一下

[TOC]

## Calculus (II)

微積分二

:::info
* number : MATH1210
* course type : major (compulsory)
* lecturer : 沈俊嚴
* textbook : Courant, John. Introduction to Calculus and Analysis
* range : volume II chapter 1,3,4,5,8
* credits : 5 (4 main classes + 1 TA class)
:::

The review of the last semester: [Calculus (I)](/QVEZs2VSSyOyxsN8xn_ncw#Calculus-I)

A nuance change of the course is the bonus points. An additional discussion lesson was held by a TA, where we can gain more points for participation, engaging in discussion, asking constructive questions, or presenting. I attended three times, including one presenting.

Another difference from the previous semester is the increased enphasis of calculations in the exams and there's a 5% grading component for quizzes which only consists of definions, homework and calculation.

:::spoiler a photo in the announcement from TA
![image](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/ByPhcpwB0.png)
:::

:::warning

grade : A+

:::spoiler grading
- homework 1~11 (35%) : 9.838/10 on average
- quizzes (5%) : 131/150
- midterm exam (30%) : 80 (sheet A)
- final exam (30%) : 85 (sheet A)
- bonus (5%) : 20/20 (attending the extra courses and discuss)

theoretical score : 93.29

rate of A+: 24.56%
:::

## Linear Algebra (II)

線性代數二

:::info
* number : MATH1104
* course type : major (compulsory)
* lecturer : 林惠雯
* textbook : Stephen Friedberg, Arnold Insel, and Lawrence Spence. Linear algebra, 4th edition
* range : chapter 6,7
* supplement : Kenneth Hoffman, and Ray Kunze. Linear Algebra, 2nd Edition
* range : chapter 10
* other supplementary materials : tensor product, classical group
* credits : 4 (3 main classes + 1 TA class)
:::

The review of the last semester: [Linear Algebra (I)](/QVEZs2VSSyOyxsN8xn_ncw#Linear-Algebra-I)

It's notable that the lecturer recognized nearly all the students by the end of the semester, which is rare considering the class had about 80 students.

There was a slight change in the structure of the TA sessions and the homework. Homework now accounts for 30% of the overall grade, and it involves teamwork and explaining designated problems during the TA sessions. In my TA session, the TA introduced several supplementary theorems, each of which were related to (a little bit) linear algebra. These included topics like his master's thesis, the Skolem-Mahler-Lech theorem, the kissing number problem, Lyndon words, and domino tiling.

The sheet A in the exams placed significant emphasis on proving theorems that were covered in class as well as tackling more challenging problems. I regret choosing Sheet A for the final exam because it was much more intense than I anticipated, while I didn't fully realize this at the outset.

::: spoiler TAs are quite strange
![image](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/r1kcqTPS0.png)
:::

:::warning

grade : A-

:::spoiler grading
- homework 1~14 (40%) : 29.7/30
- midterm exam (35%) : 62 (sheet A)
- final exam (35%) : 66 (sheet A)

theoretical score : 74.5

rate of A+ & A: 20.73%
:::

## French (I)(2)

法文一下

:::info
* number : FL2014
* course type : elective courses (taken as my liberal course)
* lecturer : 陳素麗
* textbook : initial 1
* range : lesson 13~24 (end)
* credits : 3 (4 main classes)
:::

The pattern of the course is similar to [French (I)(1)](/QVEZs2VSSyOyxsN8xn_ncw#French-I1). You may take a look at this review of the last semester.

The courses included lots of listening practice at native speed and oral practice. Students would answer spontaneous questions from the lecturer or engage in a discussion with classmates in French after learning specific sentence patterns or grammar.

We were assigned a homework about introducing a tourist site in France, and I chose Château des Baux-de-Provence:
:::spoiler part of the homework on NTU cool
![image](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/SkM2soxO0.png)
https://www.instagram.com/lesbauxtourisme/
:::

Last time I didn't break down what the exam emphasize. I roughly show it here.
The written exams hightlight:
1. masculine & femiline
2. prepositions
3. verb conjugations (all the verbs that we've learned in class, even if the lecturer only mentioned the base verb(infinitive))
4. proficiency of numbers(1~1000, time, phone numbers), especially in listening

The exams might also encompass a reading passage and a listening passage.

Different from the last semester, the oral exam turned to an 1-1 interview (just like a real language exam). It began with a short talk in which we should draw a problem from five randomly, then the lecturer asked a few questions. Fortunately, the possible questions are announced. (But we have to prepare five versions)

The problems are like:
>1. introduce your family
>2. what are you going to do on the following vacation (summer vacation)
>3. introduce your city
>4. your routine <- this is what I've got
>5. introduce the souvenirs you bought on a vacation <- this is what I wish to get

:::warning

grade : A

:::spoiler grading
- homework (30%) : 96.67 (on average)
- quiz (10%) : 88.5 (on average)
- midterm exam (20%) : 78
- final exam (20%) : 85
- final oral (20%) : 90

theoretical score : 88.45

rate of A+: 27.27%
:::

## Introduction to Cryptography

密碼學導論

:::info
* number : MATH5425
* course type : elective courses 
* lecturer : 陳君明
* textbook : Paar, Pelzl. Understanding Cryptography
* range : all
* supplementary materials (a little bit of) : cryptocurrency, blockchain, postquantum cryptography
* credits : 3 (3 main classes)
:::

I recommend this course to those who are comfortable with (not repelled by) math and have no background in cryptography or information security. The course provides fundamental understandings and several insider information as the lecturer owns a hardware security company and is often ~@!!&)@%#@^#

>：XXX叫我絕對不能在公開場合講這件事情，那我相信大家口風都很緊
>：有些東西不能說，出了這間教室，我不承認我有講過以上的故事

The lecturer uploaded all the slides and videos on NTU cool, so during the lesson, he only hightlighted important points and answer questions. Besides, there's a quiz almost every week, which encourages consistent study.

The midterm and final includes an amount of calculations, but each lasts 3 hours respectively, I reckon it manageable. 

It seemed the TAs graded generously on the midterm and final (quite different from the quizzes). The last 10% of the sheet were more challenging and were set to prevent A+ grade, but I earned much more than I expected.

:::warning

grade : A+

:::spoiler grading
- homework (16%) : 160/160 (take 12 highest out of 21 problems)
- quiz (24%) : 110/120 (take 6 highest out of 13 quizzes)
- midterm exam (30%) : 87
- final exam (30%) : 95

theoretical score : 92.6
rate of A+: 39.53% (crazily high for its difficulty compared to other courses)
:::

## Computer Programming

計算機程式

:::info
* number : CIE1008
* course type : compulsory
* lecturer : 汪立本
* textbook : No textbook
* credits : 3 (4 main classes)
:::

I took the course "computer programming" at the department of civil engineering because my French course overlapped with the "Computer Programming" for math major.

This course mainly focused on fundamental python tools (in vacant details) for most of the semester; Later on the professor requires us to complete a final project involving python programming, and APIs along with generating AI ... to try to solve a real-world problem.

In the final questionnaire, I emphasized my concerns about the labs, homework, quizzes, and exams. Instructions and statements were often unclear, requiring us to "guess" what we're expected to do based on the sample input/output (or without any guidance). For example, some exam questions recommended using specific function without providing any introduction about it; however not using it meant wasting our time on programming. Additionally, the problem statement in exams and homework frequently did not cover all the cases, leaving us uncertain, having no ideas about the output at the remaining senarios that was not elaborated.

Fortunately, I finished the midterm first, in about 80 minutes (out of a 3hrs duration), however the final is much more complicated and I didn't even comeplete all the tasks.

TAs only spent 1 hour explaining the tools we can use in the final project; Many of these either have us spend money or waste a lot of time developing the environment (e.g., installing numerous packages but still incompatible, or not having enough space for storing the package if using online IDEs such us google colab). Eventually we found Gemini useful and easier to use, making a (poor) fraud-prevention program.

By the way, the lecturer suggested us that participate the following competition: https://genaistars.org.tw/video

:::warning

grade : A+

:::spoiler grading
It seems the lecturer didn't follow the following grading he initially announced, he directly take the average of all grades.
- lab + attendence 1~9 (10%) : full
- homework 1~9 (15%) : full
- quiz 1 (7.5%) : 100/100
- quiz 2 (7.5%) : 100/100
- midterm exam (20%) : 110/100
- final exam (25%) : 63/100
- final project (15%) : 93/100

theoretical score : 91.7

rate of A+: 33.33%
:::

## General Psychology

普通心理學

:::info
* number : Psy1007
* course type : general course
* lecturer : 鄧善娟
* textbook : 台大心理系。心理學：身體、心靈與文化的整合（第二版）
* range : chapter 1~14
* credits : 3 (3 main classes)
:::

The course provides complete video recordings of the lessons, and the lecturer rarely interacted with students, so I only came to the first class and the exams, opting to watch the videos at 1.5 times speed at home. This approach also makes it easier for me to make quick notes on my computer.

The exam heavily focused on recognizing the proper nouns, categories, and the names of psychologists. As long as you have a basic understanding of what each psychologist did, what the experiments were about, what the terms mean, the questions were quite straightforward. Nonetheless, there's a substantial amount of materials to memorize, and I found myself unsure about the detials during the exams, especially the final one.

I think I didn't truly learn anything substantive from this course. While  I've seen a lot of concepts of basic psychology, but only been able to understand them at a surface level without gaining deep insights and something memorable or impressive for me. I need to refer to the lesson slides to introduce what I've "learned". However, I believe that anyone who reads the textbook seriously and is interested in the subject can truly learn something. I just realized that psychology isn't for me.


:::warning

grade : A+

:::spoiler grading
The lecturer initially stated that the midterm and final exams would each count for 50% of the grade. However, after the final exam, it was announced that the higher score would count for 70%

- midterm exam (70%) : 90/112.5 (but take 90/100) (75 multiple choise questions)
- final exam (30%) : 77/112 (but take 77/100) (80 multiple choise questions)
- bonus (4%) : 4/4 (0.5 would be added if attending 1 discussion on the NTU cool system, which is held every week / 0.5 would be added if attending 30 minutes of authorized psychology experiment)

theoretical score : 90.1

rate of A+: 48.92%
:::

## general info

![image](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/H1bDRKurR.png)

GPA:4.14

# a brief review of the summer vacation

- Study groups
    - Algebraic Graph Theory
        - We used the book (GTM 207) "Algebraic Graph Theory" by Chris Godsil and Gordon Royle.
        - I prepared for the chapter 2 (Groups) and the chapter 7 (Kneser graph), and present the former one in 6/19, while the latter will be held in September.
        - chp 3 (6/26), chp 4 (7/3, 7/31, 8/07), chp 5 (8/07, 8/14), chp 6 (8/21, 8/28)
    - What I organized
        - Additive Combinatorics
            - We chose "Additive Combinatorics" by Terrence Tao and Van Vu as our primary textbook, while there were numerous recent developments in the field, other supplementary resources were also introduced.
            - I've studied several topics, opting "(elementary) probablistic methods" and "sum-product problem and incidence geometry" for my presentations, which were held on 7/15 and 8/29, respectively.
            - Thanks 林仕捷 for preparing the topic "sum-set estimate". (7/21)
        - Other topics:
            - Here I thank 張廷岳 & 吳孟恩 for introducing the prime number theorem (7/07) and the Dirichlet theorem (7/13), respectively.
        - For those interested in these topics, feel free to check out the channel that collects the recordings : [deRadis](http://www.youtube.com/@deRadis90746). If you have any ideas about hosting a study group(study program/seminar/or merely a talk) of indefinite topics, you're welcome to join our Discord server (just ask me for an invite).
- Math camp preparation (~7/26)
    - I was the host of an activity scheduled for 7/25, but it was cancelled due to the Typhoon Gaemi. This would have featured 9 games, some of which I invented.
    - It took much time to modify the games and test them.
- Driver liscence (~8/1)
    - I took an 1-hour lesson (basically) each weekday between 6/24 and 7/29.
    - We spent too much time in the field and drove on the actual road for 9 cycles, which I found insufficient. But fortunately, I passed the exam on the first attempt.
    - written exam on 7/30, road exam on 8/1.
    - After that, I practised on road for a few times.
- Summer school on combinatorics (8/05~8/09)
    - [official website of NCTS](https://ncts.ntu.edu.tw/events_3_detail.php?nid=350)
    - The talks focused on the entropy method and the polynomial method, both of which were new to me. The introduction covered the finite field Kakeya problems, joint problems, their own results, and more. In each session, the lecturers provided an exercise sheet including known theorems, their results in recent years, and open problems.
    - The proofs weren't always easy to follow, but the ideas were usually delivered well during the lectures. I found the methods kind of intriguing although I'm still unsure how to use them, I think some reviews and extra studies in the field are needed.
- Good Moduli Space (8/12~8/15)
    - [official website of the event(s)](https://mathant.notion.site/2024-d460112a7d97482795b72023d470640a)
    - The event emphasized cooperation to make the event available, ensuring that everyone learned something and no one was just a passive participant. Discussions and interactions after the talks were also considered essential.
    - I took on the responsibility of recording meeting minutes and assisting with general tasks, such as taking photos.
    - I'm thankful that the organizer allowed me to join primarily to observe the process, arrangement of the activities, and other details. Although I didn't meet many of the prerequisites and could only grasp a bit understanding of the topics, the experience was both interesting and memorable. It will be helpful if I organize similar activities in the future.
    - The organizers have begun planning to hold this activity again next year and keep the community active.

---
I'll take the courses Analysis, Algebra, ODE, Principle of Microeconomics, (and maybe French II) in the next semester.
