Eleven Lectures, DBMS Revision, and Homemade Aloo-Puri

Day 20 was one of those days when I had to manage two different responsibilities: my GATE preparation and my personal life.

The academic target was pretty demanding. I had planned to complete six lectures of Theory of Computation and five lectures of Database Management Systems.

And thankfully, I managed to complete all eleven.

However, the day wasn't entirely about lectures. There was also some cooking, family time, and a little adjustment to my study schedule.

Let's get into it.

Eleven Lectures. Target Completed.

My primary target for Saturday was:

• 6 lectures of TOC.
• 5 lectures of DBMS.

I managed to complete both targets successfully.

The TOC lectures were part of my ongoing revision, while DBMS required a more detailed approach because I was revising the subject from scratch and preparing notes simultaneously.

It took me almost the entire day to get through the workload.

I did rush through a couple of the final DBMS videos and some of the initial TOC revision videos. But I am not particularly worried about that because this is not my final revision.

I will revisit these concepts during subsequent revision cycles.

The important thing was to complete the day's planned workload without disturbing the October calendar.

Revising DBMS From Scratch

Today's DBMS revision covered several foundational concepts.

I started with RDBMS and the relational model, revisiting terminology such as tuples, records, attributes, cardinality, and arity.

Then came functional dependencies.

I revised the basic idea of an FD, represented as X → Y, where X functionally determines Y.

After that, I moved to the different types of functional dependencies:

• Trivial functional dependency.
• Non-trivial functional dependency.
• Completely non-trivial or, as commonly called in some teaching material, semi-non-trivial dependency.
• Full functional dependency.
• Partial functional dependency.
• Transitive dependency.

I also revisited Armstrong's axioms.

Initially, I could recall reflexivity and transitivity, but one important rule was missing from my memory: augmentation.

Thankfully, it came back during revision.

I then moved to attribute closure, followed by the concepts of super keys, candidate keys, primary keys, alternate keys, prime attributes, and non-prime attributes.

One thing I particularly revisited was the process of identifying candidate keys using functional dependencies.

For example, attributes that do not appear on the RHS of any functional dependency must be included in every candidate key.

These concepts form the foundation for understanding normalization, so I want to make sure I am comfortable with them before moving further.

A Little Cooking Break

Now comes the part that made Saturday feel less like a study marathon.

My father usually observes a fast on Saturdays. He breaks it in the evening, although I am not entirely sure whether he observes it specifically for Hanuman Ji or Shani Dev.

After he broke his fast, I decided to help him prepare dinner.

And what did I make?

Aloo-Kaddu ki Sabzi with Puri.

Not going to lie, it turned out really well.

My mother also prepared Sevaiyan for dessert, so we had a proper homemade dinner together.

We enjoyed the meal and eventually went to sleep.

I then completed the remaining DBMS revision lectures and notes.

It was a simple family evening, but I genuinely enjoyed it.

Sometimes, the best part of a long study day is doing something completely unrelated to your syllabus.

Although, technically, even cooking involves a sequence of operations. Computer Science has ruined my ability to escape algorithms. 😭

Productivity Isn't Always About Studying Every Minute

One thing I noticed today was that completing eleven lectures required me to use practically the entire day.

I had to fit my personal responsibilities around the study schedule, and a few lectures were completed at a faster pace than I would ideally prefer.

But I am learning to distinguish between two things:

1. Completing a revision target.
2. Achieving complete conceptual mastery.

They are not necessarily the same thing.

I can complete a revision lecture today and still need to revisit its concepts tomorrow or during the next revision cycle.

That doesn't automatically make today's effort useless.

What matters is that I remain aware of the areas that require additional attention.

Tomorrow: More DBMS

For Day 21, I have planned seven lectures of DBMS.

These lectures should take me closer to completing the first chapter.

October's schedule is already fixed, and I intend to follow it without repeatedly shifting the deadlines.

My original syllabus completion target was August. Now it is 31 October.

I don't want to keep moving that date every time the workload becomes uncomfortable.

Day 20: A Productive Saturday

Looking back, I am satisfied with today.

I completed all eleven planned lectures, revised DBMS from scratch, prepared notes, and still managed to spend some time with my family.

It wasn't a perfectly structured study day, and I did rush through a few videos.

But it was a real day of preparation, with all the usual adjustments that come with balancing work, family, and personal goals.

Day 20 completed.

Tomorrow, DBMS gets another full day.

Let's keep moving.