Summer vacation

 Hello, I hope you've been well. I finished my second semester about two weeks ago and want to talk briefly about how it went. After that, I will talk about other random things.

University

Compared to the first semester, the second one was mentally less strenuous, this is probably due to getting used to the pressure of exams and being more familiar with how things work around me. The subjects I took were: ENG102 - HIST160 - MATH102 - LIT201 - PHIL104 - CMPE114.

ENG102 - Like the first English course, the focus was on essays. I learned the proper way to start body paragraphs and a technique for organizing your ideas. At the beginning of the semester, the teacher made me rewrite my essays a couple of times, and even though it was annoying, it forced me to adopt the ideas she was teaching, which consequently made the rest of the semester easy.

HIST160 - We continued learning about Turkish history. The course isn't difficult as long as you put effort into listening during the classes.

MATH102 - Calculus 2 wasn't a big problem, but I started struggling when we got to the equations of planes from Calculus 3. Understanding the concept and doing questions from the book was doable, but the exam questions were very difficult.

LIT201 - In this course, we discussed children's literature. We sometimes talked about its history but mostly tried analyzing texts critically. Writing essays was also one of the main objectives of this course, and the teacher helped me get better at developing thesis statements. Overall, it was interesting.

PHIL104 - This course mainly discussed Stoicism. I'm very interested in Stoicism but regret taking the course, mainly due to the professor. He was nice but very harsh in grading, especially considering that this course is a common core course (Not one of the main courses. A course you're free to choose from a list). Common core courses are usually easy compared to the main ones, like math, and you should aim for getting an AA from them. The teachers of these courses are usually understanding and lenient, but that wasn't the case for this course.

CMPE114 -In this course, I attended the labs but didn't really attend the lectures, I was mainly relying on my online Java course. There isn't anything really worth mentioning.  

Programming

Using an online Java course, I recently finished studying AutoBoxing, Unboxing, and ArrayLists. I'm currently studying Linked Lists, after that, I will study Inner and Abstract Classes & Interfaces. My plan is to prioritize improving my programming skills over everything else during this summer.

Music 

I've been trying to read piano music sheets every day for a week, which made me remember the basics that I learned during the last winter break. I plan on keeping this up until summer break finishes, and hopefully, it'll become more natural to me by then. I'll probably publish a post where I write an update about my level in a couple of weeks. I'm currently learning "Chopin - Nocturne in C Sharp Minor (No. 20)" on the piano, and "Howl's Moving Castle" on the guitar, both of them are a little challenging, especially the guitar one.

Random

I started using the Pomodoro technique about two months ago and noticed that 25 minutes per set was good for studying math, but when it came to programming, I preferred longer sets, which is why when summer break started, I changed my sets to 45 minutes with longer breaks. I also noticed that if I'm trying to complete an exercise rather than watch a lecture, I tend to take a break after 2 consecutive sets (an hour and a half). In other words, the rate at which I need a break depends on what I'm studying. Of course, this is subjective, and I'm not sure how the quality of my focus is actually affected, but I'll stick to whatever feels natural.

I'm still reading "The Laws Of Human Nature" and I probably still need some time until I finish it. It's a big book, but I'm enjoying it nonetheless. I also read some fantasy novels whenever I feel bored.

I've been thinking about how I sometimes read valuable information but tend to forget it after a while, so I decided to make some kind of personal mini-book, using Google Docs, where I write down lessons and information I find useful from personal experience, books, or any other source in my own words, this is to improve my writing skills, increase the chances of retaining the lessons, and to save valuable information that I might need to refer back to. The document has different sections like Nutrition, Exercise, and Habits, and each section has multiple sub-branches. For example, if I read something interesting about running that I want to remember and possibly even apply, I would add it to the Running branch in the Exercise section. This is still just an idea I'm currently trying, and I know it's time-consuming, but if it proves to be useful and I actually stick to it, I guess I will have a small interesting book for myself in a couple of years.

For 3 Months now, using Google Docs, I have been tracking different things I do during the day, like the amount of Pomodoro sets (which I now call P-sets) I complete, my daily steps, and whether I completed my workouts or not. I noticed that it helps keep me conscious of what I have to do and the habits I'm trying to adopt. It works as proof of the effort I'm putting in but also keeps me from overestimating it. I also have a notes section for writing about anything I did during the day that isn't normally part of my routine, like visiting a new park. This is a simplified version of it, I would just add a new table on top each week to keep the current week on the first page. You can think of this as just a method I use to stay organized, and I'm sure different people prefer other approaches.

I plan on posting an update in a few weeks, so see you then, and have a good day :).