Study Buddies (AKA NOW LET US ALL NOT FAIL CLASSES AND SHIT)

[Reyo]

1. Go to class
2. Pay attemtion to what the teacher says.
3. Write down what the teacher says.
4. Put a little star next to things they say more than once, or say will be on the exam.

Bonus:
5: Read what you wrote down prior to the exam.

[SaintCrazy]

Don't write down every single thing word for word. Listen and figure out what the most important concepts are. Pay special attention to stuff the prof says more than once or emphasizes somehow.

Later, go through your notes again and see if it looks like you missed anything, or if you don't fully understand something. Leave some space so you can go back and flesh out stuff some more once you've looked at the textbook, reviewed the powerpoints, or listened to the lecture again (if there's a recording of it).

Rewriting your notes is supposedly the best way to learn them, so you can try to make a cleaner "study guide" version of your notes to look over, that way you don't have to look at your random scribbles and you can leave out unimportant stuff while adding in stuff you need. What I often do is return to my original notes and write over key words a few times to "bold" them, and circle important diagrams or equations or whatever.

[Cori]

From my experience, Cornell notes are complete bullshit but the format is useful for dividing the information you're given.

[SaintCrazy]

I like the idea of Cornell notes, but I hate the rigid format. it should give you an idea of how to write notes, but you shouldn't be required to do it a certain way, its just needless rules.

I am actually trying to work on my study skills myself. I think I take notes just fine, but studying them before a test or something is where I get lost, I just don't have a systematic way to study and that leads to poor planning and cramming at the last minute, which I hate myself for doing.

Any tips on making like, a study plan? I know you're supposed to start like, a week in advance, but I'm never really sure how to start, I guess.

[Syobon]

Taking notes:
- put book or whatever in front of you
- find whatever the teacher is talking about
- if he says something that isn't in there and and seems important write it down
- if he seems to stress a certain thing that is in there mark it
- focus on understanding what the teacher is telling you rather than taking notes, else you might as well not have went to class
- ask to compare notes with classmates

[corsica]

drop out of school and smoke weed

my #1 tip

[Valbrandur]

So I'm writing an adaptation of a story for class. Bring into another setting (adult protagonist and more serious manner in this case).

I'm stumped at the moment, the character is supposed to tell someone how he found out that someone killed a woman's dog but I have no idea how to portray grief.
I just have no idea how a person would react to that, I can't think this scenario through at all.

Anyone up for helping me with this? 15% of my grade depends on completing this project but I can't imagine scenarios, responses and realistic conversations that well so I'm having trouble.

Edit: To clarify, I am adapting the story The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

The protagonist saw a woman's dog killed in her garden and went to examine him. In my adaptation, he's also a policeman so he's even more interested.
He checks on the woman's safety and then tries to tell her that her dog was killed and he found him that way.

That's where I'm stumbling.

[YCobb]

Any programmers here know much about enumerated types and/or packages in java?

I'm having a weird bug where if I specify a package (proj2) for an enum class and for a class that uses that enum, the class can't see the enum. If I remove the package specification from both, then it works, but the assignment won't actually accept any changes to the enum class itself.

What's going on here?

[Reyo]

So I'm writing an adaptation of a story for class. Bring into another setting (adult protagonist and more serious manner in this case).

I'm stumped at the moment, the character is supposed to tell someone how he found out that someone killed a woman's dog but I have no idea how to portray grief.
I just have no idea how a person would react to that, I can't think this scenario through at all.

Anyone up for helping me with this? 15% of my grade depends on completing this project but I can't imagine scenarios, responses and realistic conversations that well so I'm having trouble.

Edit: To clarify, I am adapting the story The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

The protagonist saw a woman's dog killed in her garden and went to examine him. In my adaptation, he's also a policeman so he's even more interested.
He checks on the woman's safety and then tries to tell her that her dog was killed and he found him that way.

That's where I'm stumbling.

For the cop, it depends on the setting. If it's a small town, have the cop tell her in a low, but stern voice precisely what happened, just barely going over the line when it comes to the "gory details." Chances are he'll know her if it's rural enough, so maybe make it a little more personal by having him call her by her first name and using the dog's name as well. Afterwards, he steps back and you focus on her reaction in the narrative.

If it's in the big city, then the cop will react differently. Chances are he won't know her, and she'll just be another call he has to make. When he tells her, make it where he goes a little further over the line than the previous example, but still not too much. Use more emotionally enticing words to describe the accident. Have him say it in a type of cause and effect demeanor "Ma'am, I'm afraid when your dog ran across the street, he ran in the path of this oncoming car. We'll call someone to transport it to veterinary clinic." What's more is the city cop is going to have more motivation to stay within the bounds of his SOP, which wouldn't include telling the woman that he thinks her dog is dead. He doesn't know her personally, so he wouldn't risk saying it's dead and upsetting her if the dog eventually makes it. He'll make it where she comes to the conclusion to herself so there's no risk for legal trouble. Include a bit where he lets her examine the body "if she wants to" but also include that she isn't allowed to actually physically touch anything as he'd still be piecing together what happened. You can throw in an "I'm sorry" if you really want, but the sad truth is that in reality, an urban cop on call is going to be more detached from the situation of "my dog just died" and instead focus on the reality of "this lady's dog was just hit by a car, I need to be the face of objectivity."

If he's an off duty policeman, he'd going to be a little more laid back, bit still rather detached. He's still not going to physically say "Ma'am, your dog is dead." because even if you're off duty, people get pissy if there's even a chance you're wrong. He still wouldn't know her, and wouldn't risk a lawsuit from the woman because "He told me my dog was dead and caused me unneeded grief!" which would call his medical expertise into question, which he wouldn't have. He'll probably have her step back until the on-duty police units arrive as well, because it'd still be a crime scene that would need to be pristine when they arrive.

What's more is in any of the instances I gave, they're ultimately going to press for a statement, but how they ask will reflect their mood. For example:

1) "Mary, I'm sorry about Rex, I truly am, but I do need you to stay calm. You need to tell me exactly what you saw, if anything. If it helps, I can have Susan make us some tea and you can tell me in a more comfortable environment."

2) "Ma'am, I'm sorry about your dog, but the important thing here is that you tell me what happened."

3) "Ma'am, ma'am, I'm an off duty police officer *shows badge *important** my name is Officer buzzkill. What's your name? Mary? Alright Mary I've called the accident in, but what's important is you tell me what happened."

Unfortunately, for the effect you're going for, I think the only way it'd work where the cop sees the dog, and tells the woman he's dead is if it's a personal connection between the two of them, which would be too convenient for storytelling if it's an urban setting.

I also feel that most of the emotions you're looking to portray wouldn't happen until after the accident has been processed and cleaned up. Because the truth is that the cop will be too preoccupied by processing the scene, and the woman will be too preoccupied by pure shock, with some anger over the cop not giving her the information she wants "Is my dog OK?" Legally, the only right answer a cop with no medical experience can give to that is "I don't know, you can see the body after the scene's been processed."

As for the grief of it, a city cop won't feel grief unless he's an adamant dog person, but honestly were I a reader, giving that sort of backstory would feel forced onto a bit character for the sake of being able to conveniently right the story. He'll feel disconnected, but try to calm the belligerent owner down. A rural cop is different, he'll feel slight depression, but hide 90% of it under the same guise of "We need to find out what happened." though he will be a bit more personal, and perhaps more tactful with it.

Hopefully that helps.

EDIT: I'm only assuming it's a car accident, though, I'm not familiar with the story at all. Then again, if it's a case of someone shooting/stabbing dogs, that's probably even worse for what you're trying to do since any cop will forego checking the dog and immediately go after the perpetrator.

[D-vid]

Any programmers here know much about enumerated types and/or packages in java?

I'm having a weird bug where if I specify a package (proj2) for an enum class and for a class that uses that enum, the class can't see the enum. If I remove the package specification from both, then it works, but the assignment won't actually accept any changes to the enum class itself.

What's going on here?

Hmm... I didn't really use enum things when I did java, I think like once or so and that was in a group project. But post the source code, maybe I'll see something.

[YCobb]

Here you go, thanks man.
I assume I'm probably just not familiar with package structure? Or how to call other classes within a package, or something.
I just need Card.java to be able to see Suit and Rank for its data.

[Madican]

This logarithm assignment is pissing me off because I'm certain I've got the right answer but the program is still calling it wrong for every single question I'm answering.

Basically the answer to x comes down to (log11/log4) - 4 = x. My answer is -2.271 and I am verifying it with the equation of 6 raised to the x+4 power = 11. I plug in my result and get 10.98 which is apparently wrong. I round it a little more and get 11.00 but that's also wrong. I can't complete this assignment because somehow every log I find the value of it's telling me is wrong.

[D-vid]

Here you go, thanks man.
I assume I'm probably just not familiar with package structure? Or how to call other classes within a package, or something.
I just need Card.java to be able to see Suit and Rank for its data.

Okay. I don't know why you made a package there, did you have to? It should be able to find Suit and Rank classes as long as they're both in the same folder as Card.
Also the rank parameter in the Card constructor misses the proj2. in front of it while you used it everywhere else, so maybe try that. Also you might need to write "import proj2" in the top like you did with java.security.yaddayaddayadda.
I'd do it myself if java would properly work on my PC here. Maybe I'll go on my laptop later and try around with it.

[Ersatz]

This logarithm assignment is pissing me off because I'm certain I've got the right answer but the program is still calling it wrong for every single question I'm answering.

Basically the answer to x comes down to (log11/log4) - 4 = x. My answer is -2.271 and I am verifying it with the equation of 6 raised to the x+4 power = 11. I plug in my result and get 10.98 which is apparently wrong. I round it a little more and get 11.00 but that's also wrong. I can't complete this assignment because somehow every log I find the value of it's telling me is wrong.

I too get x = -2.2702842, and (x + 4) * log(4) / log(11) = 0.99999999 = 1.
6^(x+4) gives me 22.180969. 6^(x+4) = 11 → x = log(11)/log(6) - 4 ≠ log(11)/log(4) - 4. So yeah there is an error somewhere.

[YCobb]

Here you go, thanks man.
I assume I'm probably just not familiar with package structure? Or how to call other classes within a package, or something.
I just need Card.java to be able to see Suit and Rank for its data.

Okay. I don't know why you made a package there, did you have to? It should be able to find Suit and Rank classes as long as they're both in the same folder as Card.
Also the rank parameter in the Card constructor misses the proj2. in front of it while you used it everywhere else, so maybe try that. Also you might need to write "import proj2" in the top like you did with java.security.yaddayaddayadda.
I'd do it myself if java would properly work on my PC here. Maybe I'll go on my laptop later and try around with it.

Yeah, I do have to keep it in the package. I think I had the 'proj2' in the Card constructor in most places it just happened to be one of the things I removed trying to figure out what was up.
I think I tried importing proj2 before also, but I'll give that another shot and see if maybe I just did it wrong.

Edit: yeah okay, can't find any solution here. Noconfirguation of import statements is making a difference. Is there something I need to do to compile te whole package? How can I do that without having already finished the whole program?

EDIT 2: Okay it had to be in a folder called proj2. Okay Java. That's a reasonable thing to require.
Now why the fuck won't any of my main methods compile? I keep getting

Code: Select all

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Deck (wrong name: proj2/Deck)

when trying to call a main method in a class called Deck. Any ideas? It's still in the package. Treats the whole thing just the same as if I didn't have a main method at all.

EDIT 3: Fuck it, I caved and moved to an IDE. I'm still interested in knowing what the problem was, but it's """""""solved""""""" for now.