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1337 Pool

 — #Career#Bio#tech

If you are here, you will for sure know what Check-in, Pool means, if you don't, here is a simple definition.

Check-in: validate yourself

pool: Test yourself, to know if you can fit.

For me, I got the chance to validate my place in the 2019 Check-in, even though there were many Pools in that year, I got some planes to take care of first so I didn't sign in for that.

For both check-in & pool, you need to sign-in (website) and validate (in place).

Me

Photo by ziouziou on Instagram


BEFORE THE POOL

Signing in for the pool

As everyone knows, in 1337 to sign yourself in either Check-in or Pool, you need to stay always up-to-date with the dates of the events (pools/check-ins), so I told some friends of mine to notify me in case I missed something. After the school announced the dates, I chose 3d pool in Khouribga, the same as my friends.

Visiting the school

There are two main problems that you will think of if you want to visit the school to validate and pass the pool.

  • First: moving to the city where the school exists.
  • Second: Finding where to stay.

For the first one: I always use oncf-voyages to check trains and Markoub for bus tickets. For the second one, I suggest making it earlier to the city so that you'll get the chance to see multiple options (houses) and pick whatever suits you best.

Day one

After validating your place you will get access to your profile in what we call Intra, this is a website that you will use to track your progress during your stay at the school even after, in case you got accepted as a student after the pool. The website has a list of all projects you need to work on and validate. You'll use git to control that so learn some basics about git and how it works before the pool. The first day you get your badge and a T-shirt, you will use the badge to access school facilities (Clusters/Restaurant). It is not allowed to lose the badge.

After Day one

After day one, you will learn step by step everything that you need to learn to get accepted into the school, You might take some time to know how things work, but you will fit in easily. You will learn about Intra, Project XP, PUSH, Molinette, Norminette, Peer evaluation..., and a lot of C..

Every Friday you will have an exam to test what you learned, so be prepared.

Some keywords

  • STAFF: Some people their job is to make your life suck (Joking they are all nice).

  • BOCAL: This is the scariest place in the school, If you approach it, Lahsen will visit you in your dreams.

  • TIG: Punishment same as what your mother does to you when you break Tbsil Dyal Taouss.

  • RECODING: Depends on The Gana of Staff, every day some students will be called to bocal to recode everything they're asked for (from their last validated projects).

  • CLUSTER: This is where you will spend most of your time wondering why the code does not work.

  • PLAYGROUND: A place that you will visit if you want to figure out why your code doesn't work!

  • MOL NIVEAU 20: Also known as Hakim, legends say that he is the first student to achieve level 20 here in Morocco.

DO NOT DO

  • Don't eat inside the clusters.
  • Don't drink anything inside the clusters.
  • Don't take the elevator.
  • Don't ask the staff.
  • Don't forget your mask.
  • Don't cheat.
  • Don't argue with a staff member on exam day.
  • Don't use Jack cables directly on iMacs.

DO

  • Ask everyone except staff members lol.
  • Make new friends.
  • Work in groups.
  • Respect the DO NOT DO rules.

What should I learn before going in

You will be just fine if you don't learn anything before the pool, but it's recommended to do so, especially if you are new to coding.

  1. Some git basics.
  2. Some C basics.
  3. Some SHELL commands.
  4. Some Vim shourtcuts.

What about me

For me, the pool was a very great experience, every day was a new day, every day I've got a lot of things to learn. I finished the pool and my level was 9.71%, my rank was 8, and got accepted into the school and joined last November. This school is a great opportunity for those who failed or didn't like it in the traditional schools, if you love coding and stuff related to it you will definitely like it here.

If you need to ask me about anything my DMs are open for everyone on Twitter.

Some Good resources

Good luck everyone!