Third Year: Semesters 5 & 6

Hello, it has been a while since my last post, I hope you've been well. My letter grades were announced yesterday, so I'm going to briefly talk about how my 5th and 6th semesters went and the results I got.

I was having trouble staying motivated in my 5th semester so I ended up not doing very well. In my 6th semester, I wasn't doing great until the 10th week of the semester, after which I started meditating in the morning again, which in turn improved my performance.

5th Semester

• 5th Semester: 396 hours with a GPA of 2.84 and a CGPA of 3.09

Theory of Computation:    (CB - 74 hours)

Except for one quiz, I did well above average. It was actually more enjoyable than many other courses. There were a lot of complaints by other students, and the average grades were low, so I was sure they were going to apply a curve that pushes my grade to BB, but unfortunately, they didn't. A lot of people ended up getting a D, so I can't complain.

Computer Organization:    (BB - 72 hours)

Even though the course topics sounded difficult, it was more fun than I expected and my grades were well above average. We discussed some topics like MIPS Programming, Microarchitecture, Single Cycle Processor, and Pipelined Processor.

Secondary Field - Statistical Inference Methods with Applications:    (BA - 80 hours) 

There were a lot of topics I was familiar with from a previous math course, so it wasn't bad.

Signals and Systems:    (DD - 90 hours) 

This course undisputedly takes the title of "The worst course I have taken." I was surprised when I saw my total study time was 90 hours, because even though my study time wasn't bad, I barely "really understood" anything. I'm sure this could've been taught better. Both the teaching approach and the slides were not good. The overall average mark on the final exam was 20 !!

Summer Practice:    (BA - 33 hours) 

We were instructed to make a long report about our internships and then make videos explaining what we did in them. It took longer than expected, and I'm still not sure why I got a BA. It was just 1 credit, though, so it's not a big issue.

Free Elective - Russian 101:    (AA - 41 hours) 

I've always wanted to speak Russian, so this course was a big push in that direction. The teacher was excellent, which made me even more invested in the course. I'm hopeful that I'll eventually learn the language, even if it's later on in my life.

6th Semester

• 6th Semester: 434 hours with a GPA of 3.33 and a CGPA of 3.13

Operating Systems:    (CB - 78 hours)

This course wasn't bad. The topics seemed important. I didn't do as well as I hoped in the midterms, but my final exam mark made up for it :). We mainly discussed Multi-processes, Multi-threading, Synchronization, CPU scheduling, Deadlocks, and Memory Management.

Concepts of Programming Languages:    (BB - 70 hours)

This course was relatively fun. The main topics we discussed were Scope, pointers, expressions, subprograms, parameter passing methods, functional programming paradigm, activation records, and recursion. We were already familiar with some topics, but we reviewed many new languages, especially Scheme.

Software Engineering:    (AA - 78 hours) 

This course was enjoyable. Both my midterm and final exam marks were among the top marks :). The main topics we discussed were Development Methodologies, Requirements Engineering, System Modeling, Requirements Modeling, Design Concepts, Managing Software Development, Software Quality Management, Software Quality Assurance, and Software Testing and Maintenance.

Machine Learning:    (CB - 99 hours) 

I was just 1.2 marks away from getting a BB and hoped the teacher might round up my score, but unfortunately, I didn't get the marks😑. I struggled a bit at first, but when I got comfortable with the basic concepts, I started enjoying the course more. And just like the OS course, I didn't do very well in the midterm, but my final exam mark made up for it :).

Secondary Field - Statistical Learning:    (AA - 45 hours) 

This course was fun; we discussed basic Machine Learning concepts and how to apply them using Python libraries. We had to make a project where we applied the concepts we learned to make prediction models given a specific dataset. We used Streamlit to build the UI for it, which was also interesting.

Free Elective - Italian 101:    (AA - 25 hours) 

I wasn't really interested in Italian, I only took it because I couldn't take Russian 102 or German 101, and it seemed like the easiest remaining choice. I'll probably forget most of what I studied. I was surprised that I only had to study for 25 hours to get an AA; that really isn't much.

Turkish:    (26 hours) 

Not part of my university studies, but it was important for me to keep up my Turkish studies.

Other:    (14 hours) 

Even though I didn't do well in the 5th semester, it gave me a lot of insight about myself. I now understand what motivates me better than ever, and because I do a lot of self-tracking, I'm also more confident in my ability to recognize the circumstances in which I don't perform well.

One of my main goals in university is to understand myself and become more productive. So, even if I get bad results, as long as I ask myself why, look into it, and write down what I learn, I believe I'm on the right track :).

I will compare the results I got in my next post and point out the small habits that actually helped me.

My Current CGPA: 3.13.