Round 2: Day 1 – 98%

Sometimes I can surprise myself. In the last post I talked a bit about the Launch School assessments that I’m absolutely terrified to take, and about my sister. Well in good news, and no one was more shocked and completely taken aback as I was, I received two grades: a 98% (or A+) for the technical aspect, and an A for the non-technical. Receiving the news went something like this: I screamed. I cried. I couldn’t (and didn’t) believe it, and then I just sat there waiting for an hour to figure out how on EARTH I didn’t bomb the dreaded assessment?? Yes I am at this point supposed to have enough confidence in myself to even keep going with this program, but I thought that if I did have a shot at passing, it would be ‘just barely’. But as it turns out, I passed! In fact, I aced it! According to the human that graded it and now, I feel that maybe, just MAYBE, I have an actual shot of becoming a programmer.

Weeks and months were spent studying, to include making about a million Anki cards (rough estimation), attending as many study sessions that allowed, and pouring over my notes/lessons like a madman. I was obsessed with reviewing this crap because I was so deathly afraid of failing this test. It’s a big deal to me. Since I’m only a student, I need to know that I’m doing at least an adequate job at the only thing that I’m doing and not wasting my time.

With all that over, I have to worry about the interview. Apparently it’s even harder to deal with than the written. I can’t sweat it out solo and hope to pass this one; a human will witness first hand whether I can code, whether I can code AND talk, and whether or not I can handle the pressure/pull myself out of a hole when I make a mistake.

Fun times, I dare say. I don’t even think my brain has processed any of this. Surprisingly I’m very calm about this. Maybe I’m just exhausted but the next few weeks will be nothing but using PEDAC, redoing over 100 ruby problems and **speaking**. It’s not a skill that I can say I’m even remotely good at, so there’s no way in hell I can do the interview anytime so. There will come a time though when my studying is wrapping up that I will just ‘feel’ like I need to take it, and when that comes, it’ll just happen like that. A day will come into my mind and that will set everything into motion for me. That’s what I did for the written and it worked. It forced me to focus and set a goal in mind that I wasn’t going to just toss aside. Oh btw I restarted 100daysofcode, which makes sense as today is the 1st. That way, I can keep track of my days since I don’t know how to count 🙂

I just want to say to the nothingness that’s reading this right now, I really can’t do anything worthwhile in this life now without Vin and my family. If he didn’t calm down that morning, I would have been an anxious, nervous crying wreck throughout the whole test. I looked at a picture of my two sisters and I when we were tots seconds before I hit ‘start’, and it immediately calmed me down. I feel so lucky to have my family.

Wrapping Up a Year

It’s been over two months since I’ve posted anything and part of me doesn’t even know where to start. It’s been a rough few weeks and keeping up with a blog didn’t seem like anything of a priority. My sister was diagnosed with cancer, and I had to go up there and help her with things since she had surgery to remove the tumor. Apparently it came back already and it hadn’t been a month since the surgery. She starts chemo in January so I need to figure out what to do and how I’ll help her. I came back home feeling depleted; just emotionally empty and very very tired. I barely slept when I was there, and there were many emotional days with my mom. I told my sister that if she lost her hair due to chemo, I would shave my head. Why not? It’s just hair, and I don’t know if I care anymore. I just want her to get better as soon as possible. That, and it kills me to see my mom and dad cry and be sad. I wish I could do more. Christmas was yesterday and I had a lovely few days with Vin. We watched a lot of Harry Potter, had great food, and more than a few drinks. It’s our 3rd Christmas together, and now we have another year coming for us!

Besides all that, I’ve been preparing for my first written and interview assessment for Launch School. Never in my life have I had a more grueling process of studying than for these two tests. Not for the ASVAB, SATS, any of my other exams in architecture school. This is how they are broken down:

Written: You have 3 hours to take the exam. If you go anytime past that, you start to lose points immediately. There are approximately 20 questions, and from what I’ve read from fellow students study tips, you might have around 8-10 minutes per question. The questions are long answer format; explaining concepts at a **mastery** level, what is output and what is returned, and why. Then you have to explain at a deeper fundamental level some underlying principle or concept that the code example is demonstrating, such as variable shadowing. When I say mastery level, I mean you have to be extremely precise, and be able to explain exactly what is going on in the code. Line by line. If you leave anything out, you will lose points. LS doesn’t provide you with any timers so it’s on us to keep track of time. Answers are submitted in markdown format, if not formatted properly, you lose points.

Interview: The length of this assessment varies depending on (I assume) the questions that you will receive and how long it takes you to do them. The interviewer will give you two. From what I heard though, it should be around 20 minutes per question. This is the more difficult assessment, as you have to solve coding challenges whilst explaining your thought process **out loud** to the interviewer, who is watching you as you sweat it out. There’s no hiding in this one, which honestly sounds scary as hell. The point of this is to build you up into a competent and confident person when you eventually move on to real world job interviews. They want to make sure you know how to write code, speak code, understand the thought process and can handle the pressure. Going through this curriculum, you learn how to utilize the PEDAC process (which I’ve talked about before) to help guide you through understanding the problem thoroughly to solving it. I’m not sure if you could pass this assessment just be arriving at a solution and not explain any of your thought process. This helps the interviewer get a glimpse into how you approach problem solving, and if you get stuck, allow them to see if you can go back to your algorithm and get yourself out of the situation. If you’re fumbling around without any idea of what you’re doing, then that’s a sure sign that you aren’t ready for the next stage.

This is a lot to be worried about, and just thinking about it all exhausts me. I’m very tired today and it’s times like these that make my anxiety even more difficult to deal with. It’s just basic fear of failure, which I’m sure everyone has. I just don’t want to let myself down, you know?

For the rest of the day I’ll be reviewing local variable scope, mutability of methods, and breaking down code examples. Tomorrow I will take a mock test that I’ve created for myself to gauge how well I do under time pressure. I need to be able to explain these concepts under 10 minutes or less, and figure out formatting. I can’t be doing anything for the first time when I’m taking the actual assessment. My goal is to take the written on Saturday, or Sunday if needed.

My palms are sweating just thinking about it! Anyways, it’s time to study. Goodbye for now.

R2D7 – Finishing Tic Tac Toe and Starting 21

I submitted my changes to my tic tac toe game and I hope that the TA responds back with helpful tips that I can use to further improve my game. It was a headache seeing it for the first couple weeks but I think I have a better grasp on how it works. There were some issues that I couldn’t figure out but it’s alright because it’s all part of the learning process. Now we’re on to learning how to build a made-up game called 21. It’s their stripped down version of Blackjack. You play against the dealer (in this case the computer) and you each have two cards. You can see both of your cards, but you can only see one of the dealer’s cards. Whoever can get as close to the number 21 (by adding their card values) without going over, wins the game. If you do go over, you ‘bust’ and the point gets awarded to the other player. When it’s your turn, you have a choice to ‘hit’, which means to draw a card, or ‘stay’, to keep what you have and pass the decision on to the dealer. They then decide what they want to do. If you decide to hit and you pull a card that totals your card’s value to a sum past 21, you lose. If you stay, and the dealer also stays, we compute the total for you and the dealer to see who has the higher number.

It sounds simple enough, but with code, it’s rarely ever simple. Thus is my mission for the next couple weeks, to build out this interesting game and further my coding skills. I’m going out of town to see my fam on Wednesday, but I obviously plan to still study. I want to get this game done! Once it is done, I think all we have to do is submit course feedback, start a blog, and take a quiz. Then it’s done! Once that is finished I have to complete the Medium set of problems and start fully committing my time to studying for the 101 Assessment. I plan to get it done before the end of November.

That’s it for me, gotta lot of work to do. Goodnight and stay SpOoKy.

R2D2 – Finally Made It To 6 Hours!

As the title states, I have managed to reach my daily study goal of 6 hours!! It might not seem like a big woop but it truly is; my average study time right now is in between 4-5 hours. Since I’m a full time student, naturally it is expected of me to accomplish more daily study time than a part time student would. Saying you want to do that is much easier said than done however, as I’ve learned these past few months. The brains just starts to fry like an egg on hot asphalt after hour 4. Unless you change up exactly what you are studying, it gets dull real fast. As I’ve mentioned before, we’re currently adding bonus features to our lovely tic tac toe game, which is a pain to say the least. I don’t know if I’m the only student who runs into a million errors on the road to ‘completing’ the game, but it sure feels like I don’t know what I’m doing at least 80% of the time. It’s tough trying to avoid syntax and logical errors that can occur at any point in the code and make it all work together in perfect harmony. I’ve gotten to the point where it’ll 1: display the score, 2: display which round you are on, 3: clear the screen after each round, 4: update your score and the computers, and 5: tell you who won. There’s about 6 more things on the list of features we have to add onto the game but since it’s working okay-ish now, I’m nervous to run into even more errors. Especially since I’m not quite sure even how to add those things to the game. That’s a headache for tomorrow though because study time is over for me tonight! I feel that it’s still early enough for me to watch a few videos then I’ll head to bed. Goodnight everyone! Stay Spooky.

R2D1 – Spooky Month & Tic Tac Toe!

Today is the first day of the best month of the year! Since I was a tot I was obsessed with October, Fall, Halloween and holidays in general. I’m in love with all things spooky! Cooler weather is on the way and that means going for walks and seeing the leaves change color, which is always magical to see. Today also marks the start of Hacktober, which is an event that lasts all October and encourages people all of coding (or non-coding) backgrounds to contribute to open-source projects. I’ve spent a great deal of time already searching for something I can contribute to as someone with very little coding experience to do anything with. If you manage to get in 4 pull requests on Github by the end of the month, you will receive a free tshirt! Cool stuff. I’ll see what I can do.

For LS, we are in the middle of creating a tic tac toe game. The first time I ran through the code was frustrating, I ended up feeling overwhelmed and got a headache trying to wrap my head around all the methods and whatnot. I spent some time today rewatching the pry video and also the tic tac toe ones to review. This has to be the way I do things from now on: watching videos whilst coding along with them, then rewatching the same videos the next day. I understand a little bit more now why certain things are done the way they are and that gives me hope that I will eventually understand the whole game. It’s getting to the bonus features that is troubling. I’m not sure if it’s mandatory but I do them anyway as best as I can because learning this stuff properly is very much important to me.

I’ve been trying to increase my study hours and even if I’m sick of seeing this stuff, I still think that I’m mentally able to. However, the internet situation here at this dreadful apartment complex is making my life miserable. I’ve been trying to get this resolved for maybe a week now but no one from the internet company has talked to me. The internet seems to be getting worse. I feel bad for Vin because we got a phone plan thinking that we could get hotspot, but apparently our phones are not compatible for it with our current service carrier. It’s complicated. Why is it so difficult to just have good internet connection?

Anyway, that’s it for tonight. I’m not sure if I’ll have to study outside of home because of the internet. I don’t really want to, but I’ll have to decide tonight. I also haven’t been spending time crocheting or playing games, or anything personally fun lately because I’ve been solely worried about school, but I think that it’s important for me to carve out time like that to just have fun. Can’t be too serious all the time now!

Day 100 – Made it to 100 Days

So finally, I finished the first round. Yay. Today is going pretty slow for me and I’m just now getting into the studying, but I did manage to work out. Last weekend was my birthday and it was great seeing my family. I studied while I was there but only for about an hour. I came home on Wednesday and have been having a rough week and all I want is just to get through school and get a job already. This isn’t the most exciting post ever but it’s just another day. I have to finish the ‘pry’ video and then attempt the tic tac toe game again. It’s kicking my butt so I think going back to the Rock Paper Scissors game and reviewing would be a good idea. I have a lot of trouble putting all the logic of methods together so this should work. Hopefully.

That’s it for now, I’ll see if I have anything to say for the week.

Day 84 – Rereading the Basics and the German Thing

After some time of constant struggling with the Small Ruby Problems, I decided yesterday to reread the Intro to Programming Book for Ruby. Even if it’s boring, I keep telling myself that I’m solidifying the information in my mind and strengthening my knowledge. Obviously it must be working because I’m able to solve the exercises with no problem, which I couldn’t do when I started, since I was so new to it. However, I realized that I’m still struggling with variable scope. It was an issue then, and continues to be so now. It’s strange because I feel like some days, it makes perfect sense, then when I read up on it again to recap, it starts to…not make sense. From now up until the assessment, it’s going to be something I’ll have to spend extra time on and maybe look at other resources as well. I think that maybe seeing the information in a different way could help it stick.

Yesterday I had the darnedest time trying to study, and eventually gave up before the third hour. My mind wasn’t having it, I wasn’t having it, and I spent the rest of the lovely rainy afternoon crocheting. By the way, I’m not sure about the hat. I think I made it too big, and it looks more like a beret. Vin keeps telling me to finish it because he’ll wear it regardless, but I’m not happy with it. Alas, it is only my second hat, and I’m definitely going to make more. My next project is going to be a scarf. I’m already thinking about winter, and Christmas gifts, so if this comes out decent, (I’m sure it will), I’ll make some things for my family. It’s more meaningful that way. Plus it’ll keep my hands busy. I like being able to say that I have a hobby, and a new skill!

I’ve also been keeping up with my German on the side, and even started Spanish. I kind of know basic spanish, as my family on my mom’s side is Puerto Rican and I’ve been to St. Croix a few times. I took two years in high school and also a year of German but stopped for whatever dumb reason. Now, I have decided to keep at it with both and let me tell you, it’s FUN. It’s keeping me sane, and like I said earlier, I’m gaining a new skill! I love the idea of being multilingual.

Yeet

Aside from all of that, Starbucks Happy Hour is going on and I need to get out of this apartment. Pizza is for dinner, and videogames is for fun, as it’s also National Video Games Day. Blasphemous is on sale, and I’m thinking of getting it. It looks brilliant. Gute Nacht everyone, Bis Morgen.

Day 82 – Debugging and Another Hat!

I went through the Easy 7 problems today and was surprised to find that some of the problems that I had trouble with before, were much easier to do this time around. I was even able to complete a couple that I couldn’t do last time without looking at the answer, and was confused as to why I couldn’t do it before! It’s a nice feeling. Since I’ve finished the array anki cards, I’ve also started reviewing them at night and before I do anything else.

On another note, I think I’m obsessed with crocheting. The last hat I made came out just alright, so obviously I want to make an even better one this time. The golden yellow yarn I used for the first one is nearly finished and won’t be enough for one hat so this time I’m using a maroon color. I noticed that I was extremely tense when making the yellow hat; the pain in the my shoulders got bad to the point that I had to put it down for a bit and then continue once the pain went away. I’m training myself to loosen up this time and not to worry too much about how the hat will come out. I want this one to actually fit Vin’s head, so I’m trying to figure out how to increase the crown size. I think I have it, so we’ll tomorrow how it looks. The circle pattern is so beautiful to me already and I hope it stays that way!

They say not to skip around problems in the ‘Small Problems’ section in Launch School, but the police aren’t going to get me. I was struggling so much with the Easy 8 problems and decided to change it up a bit by starting the ‘Debugging’ section. The problems contain code that obviously doesn’t work, so we have to look at it, run it, and try to figure out why it doesn’t work and fix it. I thought it would be a breeze, only to quickly find out that it was the opposite. Sometimes you don’t know why something doesn’t work, then when you figure out where the error is, you don’t know how to fix it! Maybe it’s just me and the two-layer problem. I hope that I become better at this skill because I heard that it’s pretty much a majority of what develops do at their jobs. It’s fun, like working out a puzzle, but still frustrating when you can’t figure out a solution. It’ll come with time, hopefully.

Day 81 – Hat, and Easy 8!

Last night I crocheted my first beanie hat thing and it came out well i think! It’s too small to fit Vin’s head though, and mine too. It’s alright because it’s only my first one. Tonight I’m going to try to make a bigger one. So far I’ve been learning off of videos on Youtube and their very helpful, especially since I’m left-handed. Eventually I would love to learn how to hand crochet blankets and scarfs for winter! For school, I ‘finished’ the Easy 8 problems but will have to review them tomorrow. I tried to do that today but somehow forgot how I solved those problems, so it’s definitely needed. They weren’t as difficult as previous problems and I was able to get through them much faster.

Anyway that’s it for tonight. I still have to study German/Spanish, crochet a hat and study Anki cards. Let’s see if I get it done!

Day 79 – Anki

I made two sets of Anki cards for Array and String over the past week. I plan to get very familiar with these methods to make my life a million times easier when I solve problems. I’m spending too much time reading the documentation anyway because I can’t remember all of these methods, so it only makes sense to me to just take whole days just getting familiar with them. I’m been very tired lately so I’m not able to spend a lot of hours learning Ruby. Hopefully that changes this week.