CST 334 - Week 8

Week 8 (Final Week) CST 334 -

Before this class, I honestly never thought twice about what happens when I save a file or open a folder. You just click and it is there. That was all I cared about, but after learning how it all works I can’t really unsee it. Now I picture all these little pieces like the pointers, the metadata, and the blocks moving around in the background getting everything where it needs to be. It makes everyday computer stuff feel a lot less mysterious and very cool.

One of my challenges were when I first started the disk I/O counting problems, I was a mess. I was skipping steps without noticing or I would double count something and then end up with totals that made no sense. It was kind of annoying especially because I thought I understood the process. Turns out I didn’t, at least not completely. After running through the practice quizzes over and over, something finally clicked. I began to see the steps in my head without forcing it and the numbers actually came out right. Getting an answer right without needing to check my notes felt like a big win.

This week I focused on preparing for the final. The practice quiz really helped with this as we had unlimited attempts and could review our mistakes after each submission. I worked on tricky areas like counting disk I/Os and identifying file system operations, redoing them until they felt easier. I also matched the quiz questions with my lecture notes to see how everything connected. By the end, I was making fewer mistakes which led to faster problem solving and feeling more confident about the exam.