Utility · the master library
Resources
Everything canonical from Weeks 1 to 6, gathered on one page so revision never stalls on "where was that again". Each week's own resources page remains the fuller, annotated version; this is the consolidated index, plus the study-science reading this hub's method rests on.
The six hubs, mapped
The canonical library, week by week
The primary references the hubs actually taught from, one row per source; secondary and practice material lives on each week's own resources page. House rule unchanged: when a random internet tutorial disagrees with these, these win.
| Week | Reference | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pro Git, 2nd edition | The book behind Week 1: version control, recording changes, remotes; free online, chapters 1 and 2 are the exam-relevant core |
| Learn Git Branching | Interactive drills for the command moves; the visualization makes the four areas and histories concrete | |
| Markdown Guide: basic syntax | The README formatting used in every hand-in since Week 1 | |
| 2 | Raspberry Pi official documentation | The authoritative reference for the board, OS, getting started and remote access |
| pinout.xyz | Every pin, both numbering systems; the settling authority for wiring questions | |
| paquettm/raspberry-pi-OS-setup | The colleague-maintained setup walkthrough used in class, gadget mode included | |
| 3 | SSH Academy: public-key authentication | The key model, carefully; pairs with GitHub's SSH guide for the Pi→GitHub side |
| UFW community documentation | The firewall's rules, defaults and status commands, beyond the course's minimum | |
| Debian package basics | What apt, packages and the catalogue actually are underneath the two commands | |
| Mirai (malware) · OWASP IoT project | Why Week 3 exists: the documented harvest of unpatched devices, and the field's own top-risk list | |
| 4 | The Python Tutorial | The language, from the source; the control-flow and function chapters are the Week 4 core |
| gpiozero documentation | The library of record for every device used this term, recipes included | |
| Automate the Boring Stuff | The gentler second telling of Python basics (note: it skips OOP; Week 6 leans on the official tutorial instead) | |
| 5 | Tutorial: control flow · time · random | The constructs pseudocode maps onto, and the two modules behind the timer thread |
| SRS · Pseudocode · Flowchart · Finite-state machine | The four notations' encyclopedic entries; confirmation that pseudocode has no official standard | |
| Mountain Goat: user stories · User story | The requirements style's agile cousin, for context | |
| diagrams.net · Mermaid | Digital flowcharts and state diagrams, when paper graduates | |
| 6 | Tutorial: Classes (ch. 9) · Data Structures (5.1) · Modules (ch. 6) | The OOP core reading, the list facts, and the machinery behind your first import |
| PEP 8 | Naming and layout conventions, CapWords classes included | |
| OOP · Class · Composition over inheritance | Concepts, history and the argument behind write-has-a, read-is-a |
The science of studying
| Reading | The finding, in one line | This hub applies it as |
|---|---|---|
| Testing effect | Retrieving from memory strengthens it more than restudying the material | Self-tests on every review page, answers covered first; the practice exam itself |
| Spaced repetition · Forgetting curve | The same hours spaced over days beat the same hours massed; forgetting is steep, and each return flattens it | Six sessions across a twelve-day runway, not two nights |
| Active recall | Producing an answer beats recognizing one | Write-the-command and on-paper class writing, instead of rereading cheat sheets |
| Reflective practice | Articulating what happened and why is itself a learning mechanism, which is why professions keep logbooks | The reflection log, and its 10% |
Question banks and drills
- The hub quizzes: roughly forty retrieval prompts across Weeks 1 to 6, every one with a worked answer. The review plan schedules them; take them answers-covered, in a later session than the reading.
- The checklists: every stage page's checklist is the examinable skill list for that stage, and this browser remembers your ticks, so unticked boxes are a personal syllabus.
- The self-tests in this hub: write-the-command (toolkit), the numbers (code), and the Tally trace (design).
- The practice exam: 100 points, seven sections, marking notes; the dress rehearsal, once and timed.
- Paper drills with no page behind them: one trace, one spec repair, one small class, each day of the runway; ten to fifteen minutes total, and the three question families the exam weights most.
Working offline
Every page on this site is a single self-contained file: styles, scripts and images are built in, so a downloaded copy works without a network, on a train or in a library basement, checklists included (they live in the browser's own storage). The repositories you made are equally portable: git clone onto any machine with Git reproduces your whole term's work, which is, two weeks before an exam, a decent demonstration of why Week 1 happened first.
Revision glossary
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Retrieval practice / active recall | Producing the answer from memory before checking; the strongest known study act. |
| Testing effect | The measured memory gain from being tested rather than restudying. |
| Spacing | Distributing study across days; the antidote to the forgetting curve. |
| Interleaving | Mixing question types within a session (a trace, then a repair, then a class), closer to exam conditions than blocked drilling. |
| Transfer | Applying a learned skill to an unseen problem; what exam questions are built to demand. |
| Consolidation | Memory stabilizing after learning, substantially during sleep. |
| Misconception | A plausible wrong model; resistant to rereading, dissolved by confrontation (the clinic). |
| Marking scheme | The point structure of an answer; visible method is how partial credit is earned. |
| Reflective practice | Structured thinking about one's own actions as a learning mechanism; the log's foundation. |
| Synthesis | Connecting parts into a whole; the log's closing entry, and the course's quiet goal. |