Freaking Hash Tables
05 01 2009 16:01

I just took my CSE214 test.

There were three questions with two parts each. We had to write some methods for some data structures. I breezed by the first two and thought I finished the third but for some stupid reason, it wouldn’t work.

I sat there debugging this one stupid thing for at least an hour. I couldn’t figure out why the stupid chained hash table was inserting null entries when I tried to add something into it. Eventually, I had enough and deleted everything and started over. Took me two minutes to rewrite the method and it finally worked! I tested it with the grade calculator that the teacher gave us and I got 15 out of 15.

I wanted to get out of there so I quickly handed in the files and the paper, left the computer lab, walked downstairs and out the building. Then I remembered something super important that I forgot to do: update the hash table’s size.

FUCK.

I couldn’t go back and add it, I had already left the exam area and handed it in. I felt so dumb. I just couldn’t shake the fact that I had forgotten something totally stupid and now I won’t get perfect scores on all the tests I’ve taken for that class. Yeah, it sounds lame that I am worried about something like that. But I already forgot to hand in the last hw on time (luckily I was allowed to hand it in late). And this comp sci stuff is probably the one of the only things I’m good at so I’m feeling kind of mad at myself ‘cause I forgot to do it.

Now I have to ace the final. Too bad it’s multiple choice. I hate multiple choice comp sci exams.