Five TOC Lectures on an Exhausting Day

Today was one of those days where the schedule looked manageable on paper and considerably less friendly once the day actually started.

My target was five TOC lectures.

I completed all five.

That sounds simple when written in one sentence. It wasn't.

Another Day of TOC + Office

I've been trying to follow my October schedule quite strictly because the goal is still to finish the syllabus by October 30.

Today was another full office day, and I had to fit TOC preparation around it.

I completed one lecture while going to the office, another while coming back, and the remaining three after reaching home.

So once again, the commute became part of my study schedule.

I'm slowly getting used to the idea that when you have a full-time job and are preparing for GATE CSE 2027 at the same time, the day doesn't really have a clean "study time" and "work time."

Sometimes the study session is the train.

Sometimes it's the morning.

Sometimes it's whatever remains of your brain after getting home.

Closure Properties of Regular Languages

The main topic I covered today was closure properties of regular languages.

I went through a large list of operations, roughly 35 in total, and looked at whether regular languages remain regular after applying those operations.

Among them, six operations were identified as not being closed, including subset and several operations involving infinite sets, such as infinite union, infinite intersection, infinite complement and infinite difference.

There was one more operation that I couldn't recall by the end of the conversation.

This was one of those topics where the main challenge isn't necessarily understanding every individual idea. It's remembering the exact closure behaviour of a large collection of operations.

The Brain Started Complaining

The biggest difficulty today wasn't really the topic.

It was me.

At one point, while studying, I felt quite hectic and my eyes were literally starting to close.

That was probably my brain's polite way of submitting a resignation letter.

But I didn't want to break the streak.

So I kept going and completed all five lectures.

I wouldn't call the day comfortable. It wasn't.

But it was productive.

And there's a difference.

Still on Track

One thing I'm happy about is that I'm still following the schedule I created for October.

As long as I continue following it, I feel that I'm on track toward the October 30 syllabus-completion deadline.

According to the current schedule, I should be wrapping up TOC by Friday.

That's getting close now.

I've spent several consecutive days pushing heavily into TOC, and seeing the end of the subject approaching gives me a little confidence that the aggressive October plan might actually work.

Tomorrow Looks Brutal

And then there is tomorrow.

My target is only four TOC lectures.

Only.

The problem is that those four lectures add up to approximately 10 hours of lecture time.

Two lectures are around three hours each, and the other two are around two hours each.

So:

3 + 3 + 2 + 2 = 10 hours.

And that's before adding an expected 8–9 hours of office.

So Thursday is going to be one of those days where I'll probably have to use every available gap I can find.

At this point, I'm not even pretending that it will be easy.

I'll just see how much of it I can manage.

Day 24: Streak Intact

Today wasn't particularly dramatic.

I didn't discover some revolutionary study technique.

I didn't take a mock test.

I didn't have some huge breakthrough.

I simply had a tiring day, felt like stopping at points, and still completed the five TOC lectures I had planned.

Sometimes that's what a preparation day looks like.

Five lectures completed.

Another day added to the streak.

TOC getting closer to completion.

And tomorrow, another ridiculous schedule waiting for me.

Let's see what Thursday has in store.