Five Lectures, an Office Day, and Rethinking Short Notes

Monday started with one of those thoughts that probably visits most working people regularly:

I really don't feel like going to the office today.

Unfortunately, the office had not developed the ability to disappear based on my mood.

So I got up, freshened up, and decided to get some studying done before leaving. I completed one lecture in the morning and then headed to the office.

Despite having a full working day ahead, I managed to continue studying during the commute and completed another TOC lecture. After roughly seven hours at work, I continued studying again in the evening.

By the end of the day, I had completed one TOC lecture and four DBMS lectures.

Not an enormous number compared with some of my recent days, but considering that Monday was an office day, I was reasonably happy with how the day went.

Starting the Second Chapter of TOC

In Theory of Computation, I officially started the second chapter: Non-Deterministic Finite Automata (NFA).

The main concept I studied was the Subset Construction Algorithm, which is used to convert an NFA into an equivalent DFA.

The lecture was clear, and I didn't feel particularly stuck while going through it.

I also studied the distinction between regular and non-regular languages, including how to identify whether a language falls into one category or the other.

It felt good to move forward from the first chapter and start working through NFA concepts properly.

There is still a lot left in TOC, but at least the second chapter has now started.

Four DBMS Lectures After Office

DBMS was actually the bigger part of today's study session.

I completed four lectures covering normal forms, including:

• 1NF
• 2NF
• 3NF
• BCNF
• Decomposition for 2NF, 3NF and BCNF
• Partial dependency
• Full dependency

One thing I particularly focused on was understanding the conditions behind each normal form rather than simply memorizing their definitions.

For example, while studying 2NF, I revisited the idea that a non-prime attribute should not depend on only a proper part of a candidate key.

For 3NF, I connected the condition with the absence of problematic transitive dependencies and the formal condition involving a superkey or a prime attribute.

Then came BCNF, where the condition becomes stricter: for every non-trivial functional dependency X → Y, X must be a superkey.

I also went through partial and full functional dependencies.

These are the kinds of DBMS concepts where understanding the exact condition matters. One small misunderstanding can make an entire question go sideways, because apparently databases enjoy making simple-looking conditions unnecessarily precise.

I Think I Finally Understand the Problem With My "Short Notes"

Something else clicked for me today.

I've been calling the notes I'm currently making short notes.

But they're actually not short notes.

They're more like detailed revision notes.

And I think that's okay.

I remembered something my professor had said earlier: trying to create proper short notes while learning a subject for the first time can be counterproductive.

When I'm seeing a topic for the first time, I don't yet know:

• What I'll remember naturally.
• What I'll forget repeatedly.
• Which formulas or conditions I'll keep confusing.
• Which concepts will actually be important for me.
• What deserves a place in a final revision sheet.

So if I try to create the perfect short notes right now, I end up writing almost everything.

Which means they stop being short notes.

I think the better approach for me is to create reasonably detailed notes during the initial learning and revision stages. After going through the subjects several times, I'll have a much better idea of what actually needs to survive in the final condensed notes.

The things I repeatedly forget or make mistakes on can then earn their permanent place on the short-note sheet.

That feels much more logical now.

When My Eyes Said "Enough"

The downside of trying to squeeze study into an office-day schedule is that the day can become very long.

I studied in the evening after work, continued after dinner, and eventually reached around 12:30–1:00 AM.

At that point, my eyes started burning.

I decided to take that as the signal to close the laptop and go to sleep.

I could have tried to squeeze in another lecture, but there isn't much value in pretending that productivity means ignoring every physical warning until the laptop becomes my tombstone.

I've already noticed that screen time is becoming a concern, so I don't want to make a habit of pushing through obvious discomfort just to say I studied for another hour.

Tomorrow's Challenge: Four TOC Lectures

Tuesday is another office day, and it's also my weekly fast for Hanumanji.

For studying, I've decided to focus entirely on TOC.

My target is lectures 2, 3, 4 and 5.

The slightly terrifying part is that each TOC lecture is approximately two hours long.

So four lectures means roughly eight hours of lecture content.

And this is on an office day.

We'll see how that goes.

I'm not planning to force DBMS into tomorrow's schedule. I had pushed DBMS on Monday because I was close to completing the first chapter and wanted to finish it properly.

From here, DBMS will return primarily to the weekend schedule.

For now, Tuesday belongs to NFA.

Day 22: Keeping the Journey Moving

Day 22 wasn't as intense as some of the previous study days, but it was still productive considering that I had a full office day.

I managed to complete five lectures in total, started NFA in TOC, pushed DBMS through normal forms and related dependencies, and also learned something important about my own note-making process.

Most importantly, I'm becoming more comfortable with the idea that not every piece of preparation has to be optimized immediately.

Some things need multiple passes before I know what actually deserves attention.

The same probably applies to short notes.

Right now, I'm learning.

Later, I'll compress.

And somewhere between those two stages, I'll hopefully figure out what is actually worth remembering for GATE CSE 2027.

Day 22 completed.

Tomorrow: four TOC lectures, approximately eight hours of lecture content, and an office day.

Let's see what Monday's ambition has done to Tuesday's sanity. 📚