Project Overview: Study Helper
Project Overview: Study Helper
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Summary
Summary
This project took a moderate amount of effort, but I felt as though the confidence I gained after my success with it was exponentially higher.
This was a personal project, but came about as a result of an academic dilemma. A professor of a rather tough course was famous for providing very little study material and almost no advanced notice for important tests. After a semester of this, the majority of the class was outraged that we were once again receiving no guidance for our final exam.
So, the professor compromised in a way that wasn't exactly helpful. He provided a question bank for the course that consisted of thousands of questions and told us that only 30 of those questions would actually appear on the test.
It felt completely unfair to most of my classmates that we were expected to study material and hopefully memorize less than 1% of what we studied while also trying to study for finals in other courses. However, where my classmates immediately resigned to emailing the dean, I saw an opportunity to shine.
Utilizing my knowledge in C++ while learning some new things along the way, I created a program that chewed up the question bank and fed the questions back to me in a flashcard format quickly.
How it Worked
How it Worked
Learning to use Regex
Learning to use Regex
The intial hurdle was learning how to get C++ to recognize certain text as a question, other text as choices, and the rest as an answer.
My previous courses had no reason to introduce me to regular expressions, but I quickly realized that I would need to use them in order to efficiently sort through the provided files.
The question, answer choices, and correct answer were all stored properly after some cleaning.
Digital Flash Cards
Digital Flash Cards
Once my program understood the components of the files my professor provided us with, it would steadily feed them to me in a flash card format.
A question was presented with each of the available answer choices. I briefly considered randomizing the positions of the answers, but realized I did not have time for extra features.
Once I chose an answer, I would be marked right or wrong. At the end of the question bank, I was also presented with my grade for that run.
Repetition Repetition
Repetition Repetition
Each iteration of the program took an excruciating amount of time to complete. Once I become more confident in my knowledge, it moved along more swiftly, but I needed to prioritize when to study for this course, when to take a break, and when to put energy into another course.
This was no where near the end of my academic career, but I remember this finals season as my toughest during my entire time at Southern University.
Final Result
Final Result
How did I do? I earned an A, of course. This was my hardest-earned grade, but I am proud of the effort I put into my excellence.
This project was almost as simple as my name creator. Despite the enormous size of the question bank my professor gave us, the program itself consisted of relatively few lines. However, I believe that showcasing this success is important to helping you understand the professional value hidden within.
First, when things get tough, I do not back down. Where many of my peers decided to contact the dean, lodge complaints against our professor, or simply refuse to take the test, I remained dedicated and persevered through one of my toughest academic challenges.
Second, I proved that even under pressure, I am able to make smart decisions. By keeping my timeline in mind, I was able to keep the scope of this project to a minimum, which gave me more time to focus on the challenge at hand.
Finally, I proved my resilience by not only acing this final, but by also completing my finals in my other courses with great success. When one thing in my life becomes difficult, I do not let my quality waver in other areas.
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