Concise Works

Motivation:

I thought I was bad at math, and terrible at taking notes. I passed all my classes through osmosis and forgot everything after the final exam; However, that wouldn't work at Boston University (BU) for Computer Science. I would go onto retake classes CS131 (Discrete Math), CS210 (Computer Systems), CS235 (Algebraic Algorithms w/ Leonid Levin).

What changed was when I became a course assistant for CS112 (Introduction to Computer Science II). I had taken multiple Java classes before BU and was fairly comfortable. What scared me to death was the thought of not being able to answer a student's question. This fear catapulted me into taking notes for the first time in a google doc. I would doubley study the material so that I would be prepared for questions in office hours, and post the notes on piazza (online forum). The positive feedback reinforced my note-taking. Knowing that others relied on my notes pushed me to improve them.

Then once it came to other classes, I thought, why not make notes for them too? I would go onto learn LaTeX to make them look nice, and use mathcha.io, to create diagrams. People began to use my notes more and more (often nagging me for when the next post was...). That pressure, combined with the pressure of passing, and the love I had for explaining and drawing the material, compounded into these notes.

I was so completely done with the mountains of stress. I would rather study everything correctly the first time. After that, I never stressed for an exam again. I would actually never study, because the notes I took were a form of studying. I would always go to office hours and help others out. Once finals came around, I again, never studied, and got the best grades I've ever gotten in my life. I graduated feeling more accomplished than ever before.

Now after being through the thick of it, I truly believe anyone can be good at math, or any subject with the right amount of attention. All advanced topics are just basic definitions stacked together. If one can master the basics, everything else becomes possible.

- Christian Julian Josephson Rudder

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Contribute: If you find an error, want to add something, or revise anything, consider forking and contributing, via the above github link. Pull requests are welcome! Submit practice problems, engage with the text, take ownership of your knowledge.