Nand2Tetris in 23 days??

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Nand2Tetris in 23 days??

stewSquared
I've taken a Computer Organization course and have a few years of programming experience. My school has a 23 day independent study period, during which time I'll live on campus and have only one class. 6 hours a day should be easily doable for me.

Can someone with my experience get through the course in 150 hours (= 25 days at 6 hrs/day)?
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Re: Nand2Tetris in 23 days??

ybakos
It's possible -- but I don't recommend it. In my opinion, your brain needs time to struggle, ponder, succeed, and absorb.

I bet you might be able to do it. But a big variable here is the velocity you can achieve with a programming language while building the software layers.

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Re: Nand2Tetris in 23 days??

stewSquared
Hmm... So you're saying that even if the course would take me 150 hours in a full semester, It's better to space it out for the sake of letting it sink in?

The problem is that I still want to do this project, and that month is the best time until Summer.  If I spend four hours on each track every day, I'll spend 200 hours on the course.

If I were to do the course in 23 days, I'd be spending two days on each chapter (as opposed to the standard week). I could extend that to four days by finish chapters 1-6 alongside 7-12, as if they were two different courses. (roughly. I think I'd re-order the course a bit -- e.g. chapter 4 seems like a good place to start).

In the above model, each chapter gets four hours a day over four days (200 hours) -- how does that compare to the standard semester? (Keep in mind that although students typically spend seven days per chapter, those seven days are usually split between effectively twice as many courses).

Also, the time scale isn't quite as strict as I'd made it out to be. The period is in January, and lasts 23 days. There are four days between this period and second semester, although I don't really want to resort to those. Since the period is so far away, It'd be possible for me to read the whole book before the period even starts -- is that adviseable?

Anyway, the more I look at the project, the more I get excited about it. I do want to try and make this work. Any suggestions?
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Re: Nand2Tetris in 23 days??

JavaJack
The time spent will vary a lot from chapter to chapter. You'll probably breeze through the first four, and get bogged down in 8, 10 and 11, if your experience is anything like mine. So don't go in with expectations of a rigid two days per chapter.
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Re: Nand2Tetris in 23 days??

ybakos
The bottom line is: go for it!
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Re: Nand2Tetris in 23 days??

stewSquared
In reply to this post by stewSquared
I'm going for it! :) I'll write up my plan. Do you guys mind giving me feedback on it?

Also, it might help me to have these questions answered: In a typical 12 week Nand2Tetris course that's taken during a college semester, how much time is spent on the class in a typical week? Apparently, this time varies over the semester?
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Re: Nand2Tetris in 23 days??

stewSquared
Alright, here's my plan:

Day 0: pre-reqs. Read inro, acquire book, software, choose game to implement in Jack, read chapter 9.

From here, I'll complete the course in two tracks (twice the pace of the semester, but 2 classes instea\
d of 4):

Track 1:

Days 01-04: Ch 4 for 6: AL-->ML, 7: VML-->AL
Days 05-08: Ch 1 for 2,3
Days 09-12: Ch 2 for 5
Days 13-16: Ch 3 for 5
Days 17-20: Ch 5
Days 21-23: Ch 6

Although only three days are scheduled for Ch 6, I expect to be ahead on this track. If I finish abnormally quickly, I can follow with Ch 12 (end of track 2, uses Jack learned in ch 9). If it takes me long, I have the option to cut Ch 5 early, as ch 6 relies more on 4 than anythnig else.

Track 2:

Days 00-03: Ch 9 for 12
Days 04-07: Ch 7 for 8, 10
Days 08-11: Ch 8
Days 12-15: Ch 10 for 11
Days 16-19: Ch 11
Days 20-23: Ch 12

I'll spend four hours a day per track (8 hours, like a work week+weekends), and figure a 2 hours to study each chapter, 14 hours to finish the projects. I'm going to turn this into a full syllabus with schedules for the individual projects. Comments are appreciated -- wish me luck!
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Re: Nand2Tetris in 23 days??

ybakos
In reply to this post by stewSquared
I conduct three 50-minute lectures/discussions per week. One project assignment per week, until project 10, after which it's 2 weeks per assignment.
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Re: Nand2Tetris in 23 days??

ybakos
In reply to this post by stewSquared
@Stewsquared: I personally recommend doing one chapter at a time, in order.