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Well, I just took the ACT with Writing in September, and the SAT Reasoning test yesterday, Oct. 8.

The ACT was definitely easier overall. All the four multiple choice sections, which are English, Reading, Math, and Science, were all a piece of cake compared to the SAT stuff. But, the writing was very similar to what the SAT has. They give you a prompt, then you take a stand and talk about it. I don't know how hard/easy they grade on that, but I hope I do good on that, since I usually score low on essays.

And now, the SAT. This is my second time taking the new SAT Reasoning test; the first time was in March, 2005. For some reason, it felt easier this time. I didn't really stress about it that much this time. No intense study sessions day/night before the test. I just read some tips online, and some documentaries (for something to write on for the essay). Oh, and I gave my MINI a nice wash. Yeah, that must've been it.

Well, hope I did better this time.

Oh, and anyone interested in going to a performance driving school in December? If you or anyone you know is or might be, then post a comment, and I'll give you more details on it.

Cheers.

Posted on October 9, 2005 8:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

First of all, here's the article.

I'm surprised that an HMC graduate had a hand in the Zeitgeist at Google.

From what the guy said about his HMC experience, I think I'll be having a great time at HMC.

Also, I found an article/interview done by a WHS alum, Felicia Nan. You can find it here.

Another thing that kind of relates to this post, I've noticed that the people that started Dreamhost were also undergrads at HMC. It seems that at least some HMC grads have ended up in good spots.

Posted on March 9, 2006 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, I'm back from Nashville, TN, the host city for the event. We stayed at the Gaylord Opryland Resort. It was a great hotel, but our room was a bit old. The conference had some good speakers, including Coach Carter, who gave a speech at the opening session. It was great. I competed in Econ, but didn't win anything. Well, it was a great experience, and it let me visit a place I don't think I would've ever visited myself.

Oh, the conference also gave me some ideas to work on, which will put some of that Perl to use. Don't know how long it'll take though. Maybe I ought to construct a timeline to follow.

Posted on July 6, 2006 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, it's my second day at Mudd, and I've already have loads of fun. The orientation directors have done a wonderful job at designing a fully packed program, and everything has been great.

Today afternoon we had the first game of Muddball, and it was awesome. They have these huge balls, almost as tall as a normal person, and the game is kind of played as capture the flag. It was lots of fun to play and to watch.

Also, hearing just some of the legends, stories, etc. from all the students has only made the place even better, and tonight there is a whole Mudd Lores and S'mores program. I just can't wait for that.

Well, I'll post more later. Life here has kind of tired me out, and school/class hasn't even started yet!

Posted on August 25, 2006 6:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, here's the lowdown on how hard it's been up to now (third day of classes).

The linear algebra lectures are simply amazing. When I go to class and the lecture starts, I am most likely lost, but by the time class is over, I suddenly get one of those "aha" moments, and it all makes sense. It seems to be nearly the same for reading the physics text, Intro to Special Relativity (which is actually written by faculty of Mudd). Hum1 is not too bad, as the play we are reading is quite fun.

So, today's schedule looks like I need to go to physics class, buy chem lab materials, do the chem proficiency exam, do LinAl homework, read the math book, finish reading the play for Hum1, and to have fun!

So yeah, just for the second day of classes, it is a decent amount of work. Well, if it gets any better, there'll most likely be a "Workload at Mudd: Fact or Myth Part II" coming up.

Posted on August 31, 2006 9:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I came into Mudd just knowing my major will be in engineering. But, after my experiences in CS5, I've began to reconsider my options, partly because I haven't taken an engineering course yet, and don't know what it is like, but also because CS sometimes can be so damn fun! I don't know, for example, we learned about all kinds of data compression algorithms that are actually used in data compression today. I never really knew how these things worked, but in class, we not only learned how the algorithms worked, but we also got to apply the algorithms and write programs ourselves. Sure, there are times when much of the work done in CS homework is somewhat boring, but sometimes, just sometimes, a homework problem could interest me, and I would just think about how to solve it nonstop. For example, we got to write a Huffman encoder and decoder in python. It was a problem that had many obstacles, and was the biggest program we've written yet. There were parts that I couldn't figure out how to implement for a while, and the whole problem really made me begin to put what I've learned to good use. Also, the fact that it was something that is used in real life by people brought up my interest level (the algorithm is used in both MP3 and JPEG files).

Now, I'm thinking, perhaps CS would be a viable major for me, not only for the interesting challenges, but also just for the chance in getting a job at Google/Apple. Hence, I've finally decided to learn ObjC, and hopefully will begin to write some interesting stuff.

Posted on November 15, 2006 3:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)