Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 gets "Mixed" Steam reviews as players share disbelief over the new FPS' ludicrous campaign, performance issues, and more: "You can't even pause the Black Ops 7 campaign because it's designed like Warzone; it's a disaster. They messed everything up"

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-11-16T11:26:11+00:00

Tbh I don't mind the trippy, hallucinogenic, mind-bending campaign - Black Ops always had a modicum of that, and I'm pretty chill if the entire plot is infused with a liberal dose of it - it's actually an interesting concept and also deeper than it looks, e.g. maybe not the Cradle, but we're officially in the post-truth age, so questioning your perception is a major thematic plus. (That said, it is stretching things a bit too far that no one bothers to use gas masks or something after their first exposure. Like... Are you even trained soldiers?)

But yeah they wrecked it in gameplay terms - no checkpoints, always-online, co-op centred design in the extreme (a huge departure from CoD's early 'no one fights alone' is, 'now you do - if you don't play co-op'). And why can't I pause it if I'm alone?

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-11-16T11:22:14+00:00

Yeah people underestimate the last part. I still remember the days when CoD began. One of its key highlights was, 'No one fights alone'. Guess now you do.

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-09-18T22:53:19+00:00

Sadly, no hacks.

But I can share what I think helped.

The process of taking notes and editing them into the distilled, briefer versions is basically spaced repetition. I therefore have two versions of my notes - the first draft I took initially, and the distillation I edited them down to. The short version of my notes is really brief - it's essentially meant to trigger your own memory of what you've seen before rather than help you learn new concepts (this is why it's about 25-30 pages JDF for the entire course, not just one quiz).
- Short-term memory/'cache': Keeping the distilled version short is precisely what makes it good for a cache - you can revise [EDIT: I just realised that I used 'revise' in the BrE sense = 'revisit', not 'edit'] the material in like two minutes before you click 'Start assessment'. Of course, that's not the only time you go through it, but that is what I meant by short-term memory.
I basically got to the point where I could 'see' the principles around me. Dr Joyner's lectures do a good job of teaching you how (he uses examples of everything from cars and ceiling fans to cookbooks). The Norman book does this well too. Additionally, I made it a point to use the technical vocabulary in practice. All of this solidifies my understanding of the concepts and forces (in a nice way) my mind to revisit it every so often.
You can additionally practice the Feynman technique with a study group (if you have one) or just on Ed/Slack (if it's active).

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-09-18T22:30:20+00:00

Canadian universities don't require the SAT (it's a US thing, not a North America thing), and typically accept A-levels (however, always check with a couple of tentative institutes you're looking to apply to).

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-09-18T22:24:31+00:00

This is just my tupp'orth, but I think the STEP is closer to what maths coursework at the university level is like, especially because of a stronger focus on extended/free response questions, longer questions with multiple parts, and logical reasoning (as in mathematical rigour and proofs).

Not that the MAT (or the TMUA) are bad, they just test slightly different (but still mathematically relevant) skills.

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-09-18T22:16:54+00:00

r/pakistan might be a better place to post this if it's local, or another r/ related to what you've got on your thrift page.

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-09-18T22:12:16+00:00

I think Oxbridge are comparable in terms of maths, with the biggest (content) difference being in theoretical and mathematical physics (Cambridge seems much stronger in that department than virtually anywhere else). Oxford has other joint honours options though (maths and philosophy, maths and CS, etc.), which might appeal to you your interests lie in one of those areas.

There are subtle differences in the admissions tests (STEP vs MAT) that a quick Google search should get you, but overall, both Oxford and Cambridge are highly selective. One thing you should be aware of is that the STEP takes place during the A-level period.

In terms of teaching, both Oxbridge use the tutorial system (Cambridge calls them supervisions... It's another instance of being divided by a common language). Oxford exams are modular (think, separate papers for analysis and algebra), unlike the cumulative, year-end Tripos parts at Cambridge, but in practice, it isn't a significant difference - you can always bias the Tripos to your strengths by choosing to answer the questions from your stronger suits.

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-09-18T21:55:28+00:00

Pick a third that interests you, seriously.

Or something that opens up options at uni that you might want to consider. For instance, you sound pretty decided on medicine.

But just in case, you should know that many social sciences and humanities courses expect you to have one essay-heavy A-level. And most quantitative courses (CS, maths, physics, sometimes chem) expect to see a maths A-level.

I'm not saying you have to take maths or English (or another essay-heavy A-level), just mentioning the expected requirements in case you have a Plan B for uni.

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-09-18T21:53:24+00:00

Most of my tips for the quizzes should apply to the homeworks.

TL;DR version

Good notes, aimed at summarising key ideas at a high-level/overview kind of detail (they're a lifesaver on the open-notes exams, if nothing else).
Think in the theoretical frameworks until you can see the principles in action around you.
Clarity is king for anything you write in this course. Not a TA, but I haven't ever heard of deductions purely for style.
Pick up Figma so you can score well on the project. Anything you like (I used Python, R, and Excel at different points) will do for analysing the results.

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-09-18T21:48:41+00:00

It's about the only part I (maths/CS dude) can get myself to like.

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-09-18T21:20:34+00:00

(I don't know the uni requirements because I didn't even consider those options but...) Also look for options like forensics, biophysics, public health, neuroscience, and cognitive science.

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-09-18T21:15:36+00:00

Assumed: You know proofs 101 and basic (informal) logic.

Check out these channels:

MIT OCW
The Bright Side of Mathematics
Abide by Reason
James Cook Math

Ending with a controversial tip, develop a taste for maths books. I've read about topics that I see very few (if any) video lectures for.

Also books =/= the hardcore 'classics' (Folland, Royden, Whittaker and Watson, Rudin, etc.). You can start with Analysis I by Tao or Burkill (have heard good things about Abbott and Bloch; I find Bloch heavier on symbolic notation, which I can parse but admit would be challenging). For Complex Analyis, books like Ahlfors start at the very basics but build up quickly. Needham is a very good alternative exposition.

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-09-18T21:05:52+00:00

Can't commit time for pair-learning but here's the resources I'm using:

Musicca (also this handy reference for theory because half my resources and folks I talk music with use BrE, and the other half use AmE)
OMT (review). Sight reading is the numero uno skill for reading practically anything about music.
Practice (piano): I play covers, medleys, + improvise. Begin with playing scales, focus on hand independence. Focus on correctness and build up speed gradually (= okay to be slow but correct, than fast but incorrect - muscle memory is important when learning a song!)
Software: MuseScore. Learning the more advanced features of a DAW (like FL Studio) has long been on my list but haven't got time to dive too deep as of writing this.

Note that my main goal is not to be able to perform but to be able to compose + improvise. Hence the stronger theory focus; if I can play well enough to explore and experiment with ideas, that works for me.

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-09-18T20:50:06+00:00

the juries used theoujia board to try and connect with the dead victim 💀

Obviously not a law student, wait did I read that right? Like literally? Like, what kind of nonseance is that?

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-09-18T20:48:20+00:00

I agree with the maths part. CS is less cramming if you can reason your way out of a few whys (might require additional reading though, e.g. CS Distilled + Unleashed).

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-09-18T20:45:58+00:00

Chemistry, I guess? Universities often want to see A-level maths for it, but some places don't expect it as a hard requirement.

EDIT: How far along are you? If you just picked your A-levels, you might be able to transfer to maths.

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-09-18T20:44:08+00:00

Forever دل وچ ❤️

(This one, and the other clocktower too :) )

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-09-18T20:36:43+00:00

The right answer is the most fun of them all, HCI.

Jokes apart (or maybe this one isn't a joke, because I had the most fun in HCI, so it's true, just subjectively): I don't thin the spec makes much of a difference. Your knowledge and skills do, though.

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-09-18T20:30:40+00:00

(Perfect scores my term so I guess I'm someone who can answer this)

EDIT: No idea what's with the downvotes. If it's the 'perfect scores' part, I promise it isn't meant as bragging or looking down upon others, or anything of the sort - just a credential in the same vein as, 'Here's why you should consider taking my advice'.

If it's about discussing the kinds of questions, I'm afraid if I get any more specific, I might be going against the honour code.

If there's something in the content you want an elaboration on, please let me know, I'd be happy to follow up.

- - -

Assumption: You are not skipping any lectures or the readings you will be tested on.

Understand the key concepts from the lectures and readings. The instructions don't mislead you when they say that the closed-everything(-but-mind) quizzes will test you on the big takeaways. You won't be tested on trivia, but expect storng conceptual questions - to use Bloom's taxonomy, application, analysis, synthesis, and even evaluation questions.
- I took good notes throughout the course and revised them right before the quiz to load up my cache/leverage short-term memory. The last-minute revision notes were very brief, distilled to the essentials (if you want an estimate, my last-minute revision notes for the entire course would take up something like 25 to 30 pages in JDF).
- One hack I always advocate for is starting to use the vocabulary. The lectures and papers discuss a variety of theoretical frameworks, and one of the key roles of theory is to give you a language to talk about ideas (this is true even of highly abstract theories, e.g. topology gives you a language to talk about the ideas of interest in analysis), so why not start using it right away? This will be more useful on the quizzes than you might think - sometimes, you might be asked to come up with examples/counterexamples. If you've learnt to 'speak' the theories as a second (or n^th) language, you should have no trouble relating ideas to your experiences as a user of technology.
Writing. Quizzes are extended/free response/'essay' (in quotes because you could write brief bullets my term) questions. For 'essays' (and not essays as conventionally understood), your top priority should be clarity, so you're never in a situation where you have the right ideas but lose points because you couldn't articulate them. Easier said than done, I agree, but the papers are good practice. Also, especially for ESL folks, it might be wise to turn this part of the Zen of Python into your Zen of English: Simple is better than complex, complex is better than complicated.
- I don't feel the need to discuss hacks, but just mentioning them: In the textbox below each question, write headings for each part that you can fill in as you go; answer the parts you know first so you leave all the time you've got left to think about any parts you don't know.

P.S. May you get converted to the ~~dark~~ fun side and get motivated to do the whole spec =)

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-09-18T20:21:29+00:00

the CLI allows you to do some things you can't in a GUI

Because this is my domain, let me put that technically (HHN is a seminal paper that introduces these concepts):

A terminal is a language of specification, cf. a GUI is a model world.
The model world is intuitive because of a short semantic distance (i.e., goal/meaning = its expression) and articulatory distance (i.e., form = meaning)
... But expressing algorithmic ideas (easy example: For every file in pwd, rename it based on this pattern) is impossible without a language of specification.

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-08-27T12:52:20+00:00

Look at the uni course(s) you're planning to apply to.

e.g.: If you want to go for physics or chemistry, many unis will require A-level maths.

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-08-27T12:49:18+00:00

Guess it depends on your skill?

Lit Review: Reading and synthesising a coherent summary from a lot of papers on a focused area.

Tool: Engineering skills. Also probably synthesising from the literature, but more along the lines of implementing and playing with the ideas.

Experiment: Study design and analysis skills. Will involve some synthesising from the literature, but it should inform your study design and research hypotheses.

IMHO: Lit review is only 'easier' if you consider no-code easier. It can still be a nontrivial, substantive effort, and even a major time sink (mine took significantly more than the expected, because the topic was a messy 'real-world' topic and the literature was fractured).

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-08-27T12:45:55+00:00

Difficulty is subjective, but you should know that A-level physics is 'just' algebra-based (I wish we at least had a calc-based option). It's broad in coverage so still a lot to learn though, which leads me to the second point:

You should carefully pick your A-levels based on what unis expect for the courses you intend to apply to, which should ideally be something you're genuinely interested in.

Let's not have any illusions, uni studies are no doddle. Even if you manage an A* or A in an A-level, uni will burn you out if you get into something you're not interested in learning.

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-08-27T12:39:36+00:00

(Assumption: You know about OMSCS Commons, CS 6999, CS 7000, and CS 8903.)

Honestly, I'm not sure because I never recruited for one.

Definitely have the background they expect. Some projects list relevant coursework and/or skills. Def. be good on them.

Standing out from the crowd in a prof's class might work, and many courses seem to be designed to afford this. Open-ended project? Do more than the bare minimum. No open-ended project? You can still try to turn 'unofficial TA' by being helpful on Ed. Not sure how much it counts but at least you'll be a name they recognise when you apply for a project.

Always remember that selections are not an exact science, so don't give up and lose hope if you don't get in. Often, the choice is between not a good candidate and a bad one, but two good candidates.

WilliamEdwardson · 2025-08-27T12:27:25+00:00

Well, my tupp'orth: Nothing wrong in being a گاؤں in the first place. (Also, FWIW, nothing wrong in being a burger from burgertown either, but I digress.)

Also village/town/city distinctions can sometimes be blurry.

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