COMP 232 Concordia - Discrete Math for Computer Science
Topics
Topics may differ depending on your professor.
When I took the course back in 2023, the topics included:
- Propositional Logic
- Predicates and Quantifiers
- Nested Quantifiers
- Inference and Proof
- Proof Strategy
- Proofs, Sets
- Functions, Cardinality of Sets
- Elements of Number Theory
- Primes and GCD's
- Mathematical Induction
- Recursive Definition, Relations
- Closures of Relations
- Equivalence Relations, Partial Orderings
The course followed the textbook "Discrete Mathematics and its Applications (8th ed), 2019. Kenneth H. Rosen. McGraw Hill".
How to study
- Use AI to learn - in a smart manner. Speak with whichever LLM you prefer, feed it your lecture slides and ask it to explain concepts that are tricky to you. Ask it for examples and knowledge checks. Always double check its output though, LLMs are still prone to hallucinations.
- Read your professors slides (most professors provide hints about exam content based on the length of the content covered).
- Watch helpful youtube videos for each topic. A popular choice is: Nesso Academy
- Work through textbook practice problems, tutorial questions and past papers.
- I cannot share past papers here however, I believe you can find some online. You can also attempt to find exam papers from other universities in Canada as this course is generally the same across universities.
- Topics that will almost certainly come in your final exam include:
A few topics that will almost certainly come in your final exam
- Propositional logic (working through and simplifying long examples)
- Translating english to propositional logic and vis versa
- Proof techniques (making you prove or disprove certain statements with propositional logic)
- Classifying functions
- Relations and closures
My Thoughts
Discrete Math is arguably one of the most divisive courses in a computer science degree, according to my experience. Most students hate it and yet, it is vital to understanding the underlying workings of computers. Part of this hate comes from either: poor learning and understanding or teaching, poor examination strategies and lack of practice. I recommend putting a lot of effort and practice towards this course if you are learning the concepts covered here for the first time.