Is CS not meant for beginners or do I have severe ADHD?
-
Hi again developers X| I study my first semester of computer science, and I like programming and computers but I feel like evrything is going too fast. We are jumping from one subject to another and we learn everything at once. We started to learn java in september and now we are jumping into PHP and databases, Swing, JavaFX, UML and professional software enginnering arcituctures, algorithms and propositional logic. I hardly managed to learn basic Java concepts and practice them and I already have to build Java Swing applications, manage databases and know common algorithms and on top of that train up my propositional logic-skills. I simple don't have time for that even if I would like to. I watch the lectures online (Because of COVID-19 we have online classes), but I don't learn anything from them that is requiered to pass the exams. If you want to pass the exams the school books and lectures aren't enough. You have to learn from other sources. After reading 1000 pages of a book I realize that I only learn a tiny bit of what I have to know to survive. I feel like I only study, from morning to evening but yet don't manage to learn what I have to know in order to pass exams. And now I wonder... Is Computer Science only meant for people who are already programmers and who know everything about computers, or maybe I have severe ADHD? Because I can't focus on so many tasks and subjects at once. It takes much effort for me to focus on one thing and then I have to jump to another and another... When I focus on one subject and one thing, I usually do well, and I pass my exams, but if I have to do many tasks, study for many exams I can't do it... If I would teach myself programming at home I could go up to this level and I think I could do well, because I really have intrest and motivation, but because of my CS I don't really want to do it anymore. I wonder how people who never wrote any code in their life manage to pass these exams. I feel like people who didn't have any prior knowledge about programming when they started these courses do better than me. I don't know if it make sense to continue, becase my loan is geting higher and higher and I'm... getting dumber and dumber haha :laugh:
My first weeks at university were also overwhelming. I simply could not follow courses, in part because I had no good study habits. I even failed my first exam. This did not stopped me from finishing the 5 year course on time, with fairly decent grades. It is normal that you feel "dumb", although I doubt that you are. Double down on the effort, pick up good study efforts and evaluate again in a few months. If you come to the conclusion that it is not for you, change. There is no shame in it. The student loan can be daunting, but again relax. Nobody is going to cut-off your head or put you in prison for failing to pay it. Yes, it is a big deal, but not a life and death kind of thing.
-
...and then, of course, you have the individual English regional dialects... :) Whey, man, divn't drop ya dottle on the proggie mat o the gapher'll kick yi oot....:)
Leo56 wrote:
Whey, man, divn't drop ya dottle on the proggie mat o the gapher'll kick yi oot.
American regional dialects also exist. Most aren't quite as incomprehensible to the outsider as that...
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
-
The problem is that CS is a complicated field, which a massive variety of subfields: in terms of languages alone there are dozens that are in common use in the real world, and each of those is used with different aims in mind, with different parts of the frameworks available being used depending on the task. Just in terms of environments under which an application will run, there are four main contenders: Windows, Web, iPhone, Android: and each of them uses a different framework (or frameworks - there are many different ones in each environment!. Some environments traditionally enforce a specific language: Java for Android, Objective C for Apple, HTML / Javascript plus a backend language for web based. So there is a huge amount to learn: the course doesn't know what you are going to be good at or interested in so it has to - initially at least - give you an overview of everything so that you know that it exists even if you can't really code in it (and trust me on this, almost nobody leaves a degree course in CS being able to code well in any language, much as their exam results may beg to differ!) And there's the rub: out in the real world, you have to keep switching about - you can't just focus on one thing for a long period of time, because everyone else is waiting for that bit so their bits can work. And you have to keep on learning, all the time - new ideas, new methods, new frameworks, new languages ... it never ends! It takes a specific mindset to do this, not that many people have it, and as far as I know it can't be taught - it has to be learned and that's a big difference! I'd suggest talking to your tutor, and seeing what he can suggest or do to help - if nothing else this will be a problem he has met before and he knows you better than we do.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
I would take issue with your usage of CS. CS IMO is the study of computing in the abstract - algorithms, complexity theory, etc. In order to apply CS in the "real world", we use computer languages, operating systems, etc. The difference is analogous to that between physics and electronics.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
-
When I started studying at university I was preparing myself and read some books on Java. It was hard but I did learn the syntax and the basic concepts and how to make objects and what classes are and so on. But I feel like everything goes too fast. I have my own tempo. I understand what I learn and find it intresting but I'm a slow learner. I learn most effective by reading entire books. Lectures don't work for me at all. After listening to a lecture I still have very little knowledge and the teacher just talks and I can't push the stop button so if I don't get what he/she keeps talking. My focus is bad when I'm listening, because I easily get distracted so I prefer online courses or books so I can pause and think about what I learned. It's not that I don't get what I learn. It's just that no one will wait for me to and I'm really slow. When I already have learnt things I'm fast but my learning process is very slow and I simply can't catch up on the material. I have motivation, I enjoy what I'm doing but I'm too slow and I always behind and I fear that in the end will fail too many courses and have to drop out anyway and have a big loan that I have to pay off working as a cleaner :((
Well, I read you describe yourself and it seem like you're describing me. Let first start by telling you something about doing what we (programmers) do. It's because we love it. It's because we're curious and it's because we love the feeling of accomplishment, almost as if we were performing magic when we make something work for the first time. Now, if you share some of that sentiment, you're likely on the right direction and on the right path, everything else is learned, including the way of thinking. I for one, always learned best with books. As you said, doing it at my own pace, with the book open over my lap or desk, while I would try whatever I had just learned. It takes time. Fortunately when I started I had time, I was 14 years old when I read my first book. My first book was from the series "teach yourself in 21 days", which was obviously impossible for me with a book of over 700 pages, doing hands one. It was more likely 21 weeks. What I also didn't know at the time is that I have ADHD (actually ADD, which is the mostly inattentive version). That said, books were one of the only things that actually captured my attention and focus. But yep, in that sense it also made me a slow learner. I started treating myself for the condition just now, over 20 years later, back then I was completely oblivious of the situation, as a matter of fact, I have spent a lot of my life being oblivious about too many things. Too much time in my head and I am thankful for discovering programming (by accident), which gave me some direction. When I actually went to university, I already knew so much that I would spend my time in class helping others, rather than learning myself, this let me slide through CS classes quite easily and the prior knowledge removed the pressure to learn all of these subjects at the same time. As I never liked to do homework, I could use my spare time in class to do exercises on subjects I was not very savvy about, like physics and calculus. So maybe you should ask yourself if it's the right time to do Uni of if you could take it slower. I am not sure about the education system there, but have you considered if you can take less classes at a time? I think this could help you focus and give you room to properly learn stuff. There is no point on rushing through uni if you cannot retain what you're being fed with. It's just a waste of time and money. You should realize what you're experiencing as a red flag and you need to reassess your goals. I think it's no shame on taking longer in the
-
Leo56 wrote:
Whey, man, divn't drop ya dottle on the proggie mat o the gapher'll kick yi oot.
American regional dialects also exist. Most aren't quite as incomprehensible to the outsider as that...
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
British English is a language. American English is a dialect. Australian English is a speaking disorder.
-
Hi again developers X| I study my first semester of computer science, and I like programming and computers but I feel like evrything is going too fast. We are jumping from one subject to another and we learn everything at once. We started to learn java in september and now we are jumping into PHP and databases, Swing, JavaFX, UML and professional software enginnering arcituctures, algorithms and propositional logic. I hardly managed to learn basic Java concepts and practice them and I already have to build Java Swing applications, manage databases and know common algorithms and on top of that train up my propositional logic-skills. I simple don't have time for that even if I would like to. I watch the lectures online (Because of COVID-19 we have online classes), but I don't learn anything from them that is requiered to pass the exams. If you want to pass the exams the school books and lectures aren't enough. You have to learn from other sources. After reading 1000 pages of a book I realize that I only learn a tiny bit of what I have to know to survive. I feel like I only study, from morning to evening but yet don't manage to learn what I have to know in order to pass exams. And now I wonder... Is Computer Science only meant for people who are already programmers and who know everything about computers, or maybe I have severe ADHD? Because I can't focus on so many tasks and subjects at once. It takes much effort for me to focus on one thing and then I have to jump to another and another... When I focus on one subject and one thing, I usually do well, and I pass my exams, but if I have to do many tasks, study for many exams I can't do it... If I would teach myself programming at home I could go up to this level and I think I could do well, because I really have intrest and motivation, but because of my CS I don't really want to do it anymore. I wonder how people who never wrote any code in their life manage to pass these exams. I feel like people who didn't have any prior knowledge about programming when they started these courses do better than me. I don't know if it make sense to continue, becase my loan is geting higher and higher and I'm... getting dumber and dumber haha :laugh:
Its called studying a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering Math/medicine) aligned subject. You are meant to read around the subjects, its not like being at school. Being at University/College is not meant to be easy (or least for STEM subjects) - its meant to stretch you to your limits (and beyond)!
-
Hi again developers X| I study my first semester of computer science, and I like programming and computers but I feel like evrything is going too fast. We are jumping from one subject to another and we learn everything at once. We started to learn java in september and now we are jumping into PHP and databases, Swing, JavaFX, UML and professional software enginnering arcituctures, algorithms and propositional logic. I hardly managed to learn basic Java concepts and practice them and I already have to build Java Swing applications, manage databases and know common algorithms and on top of that train up my propositional logic-skills. I simple don't have time for that even if I would like to. I watch the lectures online (Because of COVID-19 we have online classes), but I don't learn anything from them that is requiered to pass the exams. If you want to pass the exams the school books and lectures aren't enough. You have to learn from other sources. After reading 1000 pages of a book I realize that I only learn a tiny bit of what I have to know to survive. I feel like I only study, from morning to evening but yet don't manage to learn what I have to know in order to pass exams. And now I wonder... Is Computer Science only meant for people who are already programmers and who know everything about computers, or maybe I have severe ADHD? Because I can't focus on so many tasks and subjects at once. It takes much effort for me to focus on one thing and then I have to jump to another and another... When I focus on one subject and one thing, I usually do well, and I pass my exams, but if I have to do many tasks, study for many exams I can't do it... If I would teach myself programming at home I could go up to this level and I think I could do well, because I really have intrest and motivation, but because of my CS I don't really want to do it anymore. I wonder how people who never wrote any code in their life manage to pass these exams. I feel like people who didn't have any prior knowledge about programming when they started these courses do better than me. I don't know if it make sense to continue, becase my loan is geting higher and higher and I'm... getting dumber and dumber haha :laugh:
i think that something is wrong with your country's educational system or maybe with that particular school you're in, if it's a private university. they are jumping into many technologies at once and too little programming i guess. technologies will change, but the way of thinking about solving problems doesn't change so fast. this: Swing, JavaFX, UML... seems to me like chaos. i believe that learning should be like an exponential curve. at first it's hard to grasp the basics but you need a very strong foundation. when you take the right path then you excel, letter. for a person that has infinite amount of memory and brain power maybe their approach is good, throwing at you dozen of technologies at a time, but that way of learning has only linear progression. as i said if you have infinite memory... i don't want to discourage you but i think you should look out for the option to switch the university. i'm not saying to drop CS, but tho consider a different uni that has at least 30+ years of CS educational experience. i don't know what you should do about your college money loan/supply. that's another and very upsetting story and maybe your entire generation is in the same shoes as you. maybe everybody is as confused as you with that (i believe) experimental educational system. apart from mathematics, natural science, hardware and other stuff that you should learn at a CS university, the CS path should be (IMHO): algorithms, imperative language A, data structures, declarative language B, OO language C, functional language D... then go back to data structures in a language E that can do as much of A, B, C and D as possible.
-
Hi again developers X| I study my first semester of computer science, and I like programming and computers but I feel like evrything is going too fast. We are jumping from one subject to another and we learn everything at once. We started to learn java in september and now we are jumping into PHP and databases, Swing, JavaFX, UML and professional software enginnering arcituctures, algorithms and propositional logic. I hardly managed to learn basic Java concepts and practice them and I already have to build Java Swing applications, manage databases and know common algorithms and on top of that train up my propositional logic-skills. I simple don't have time for that even if I would like to. I watch the lectures online (Because of COVID-19 we have online classes), but I don't learn anything from them that is requiered to pass the exams. If you want to pass the exams the school books and lectures aren't enough. You have to learn from other sources. After reading 1000 pages of a book I realize that I only learn a tiny bit of what I have to know to survive. I feel like I only study, from morning to evening but yet don't manage to learn what I have to know in order to pass exams. And now I wonder... Is Computer Science only meant for people who are already programmers and who know everything about computers, or maybe I have severe ADHD? Because I can't focus on so many tasks and subjects at once. It takes much effort for me to focus on one thing and then I have to jump to another and another... When I focus on one subject and one thing, I usually do well, and I pass my exams, but if I have to do many tasks, study for many exams I can't do it... If I would teach myself programming at home I could go up to this level and I think I could do well, because I really have intrest and motivation, but because of my CS I don't really want to do it anymore. I wonder how people who never wrote any code in their life manage to pass these exams. I feel like people who didn't have any prior knowledge about programming when they started these courses do better than me. I don't know if it make sense to continue, becase my loan is geting higher and higher and I'm... getting dumber and dumber haha :laugh:
Maybe this post will help. I am its author. https://mypaltrythoughts.blogspot.com/2019/02/how-to-save-on-college-tuition-and-get.html\[^\]
-
fyi: I started programming after age 40, and within five years was an about-box credited co-author of a best-selling consumer software program. First, how do you know you have ADHD ? Second, your description of your "basic CS course" is so absurd that I think you are making it up. Other: Nature speaks the language of mathematics. In my experience, multi-lingual students have an advantage in learning CS. Finally, quit making elaborate excuses for your lack of motivation, and/or laziness ... and: Assess whether you have the aptitude for computer science. If you have the aptitude, find a course or school where the introductory content is focused on algorithms and programming in one language. Above all, find something to invest in that challenges you, that motivates you to grow. Time's a wastin'
«One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.» Salvador Dali
-
Hi again developers X| I study my first semester of computer science, and I like programming and computers but I feel like evrything is going too fast. We are jumping from one subject to another and we learn everything at once. We started to learn java in september and now we are jumping into PHP and databases, Swing, JavaFX, UML and professional software enginnering arcituctures, algorithms and propositional logic. I hardly managed to learn basic Java concepts and practice them and I already have to build Java Swing applications, manage databases and know common algorithms and on top of that train up my propositional logic-skills. I simple don't have time for that even if I would like to. I watch the lectures online (Because of COVID-19 we have online classes), but I don't learn anything from them that is requiered to pass the exams. If you want to pass the exams the school books and lectures aren't enough. You have to learn from other sources. After reading 1000 pages of a book I realize that I only learn a tiny bit of what I have to know to survive. I feel like I only study, from morning to evening but yet don't manage to learn what I have to know in order to pass exams. And now I wonder... Is Computer Science only meant for people who are already programmers and who know everything about computers, or maybe I have severe ADHD? Because I can't focus on so many tasks and subjects at once. It takes much effort for me to focus on one thing and then I have to jump to another and another... When I focus on one subject and one thing, I usually do well, and I pass my exams, but if I have to do many tasks, study for many exams I can't do it... If I would teach myself programming at home I could go up to this level and I think I could do well, because I really have intrest and motivation, but because of my CS I don't really want to do it anymore. I wonder how people who never wrote any code in their life manage to pass these exams. I feel like people who didn't have any prior knowledge about programming when they started these courses do better than me. I don't know if it make sense to continue, becase my loan is geting higher and higher and I'm... getting dumber and dumber haha :laugh:
First, it is no big deal if you take an incomplete in the course, and continue again a second time. I would still try to stay in the course, doing the work, etc. [After taking the incomplete] As you said, you might be more kinesthetic and less visual as a learner (Meaning you learn through doing more than imagining/visualizing). It's not good or bad, per se. A lecture does NOT TEACH a subject, it FRAMES a subject! A good lecture on Algorithms + Data Structures doesn't teach you ALL of those things. It FRAMES why they are important. That you match the two of them based on your memory, performance and data sizing requirements. If you have 10 Terabytes of information to search through. I would guess an in-memory array that you bubble sort is out of the question! My recommendation is (and always will be). 1) Read the material BEFORE the lecture. On a blank page, write down EVERY NEW Word/concept (do not look it up, just acknowledge this is new to you) 2) Do any EXAMPLE Problems in the text. Actually do them. Or at the least, rewrite them in their entirety (This familiarizes you to the patterns, and the language/terminoloty) 3) Set it aside for a bit... (Do this the night before the lecture) 4) Watch/Attend the lecture. [But read your list of new Terms Before you do, your brain will fill them in as you watch] 5) After watching the lecture, re-work by yourself ANY examples the lecturer used. Then redo the examples from the book. Review the terms, start checking off the ones you feel comfortable with. 6) Re-Read the book for this lecture. 7) Do the homework. Compare it to the examples. Review the terms, again... Wash, Rinse, Repeat. Do this for Math/Science classes. I've seen kids go from literally failing course, who went back to the beginning of the course, and APPLIED this approach end up getting STEM degrees or literally crushing the classes. You need DECOMPRESSION time, and extra review time. I will guess that your confidence is getting crushed. Then you are flailing on the tests, never quite certain what they are driving at. For most people, confidence is EITHER going to come from repetition or memory (Just knowing the answer is right). Your #1 job on your test is to manage your confidence. Before your test, review ALL of those sheets with the terms on them. And this will help. You will instantly realize how far you have come. And at the same time, you will know what you know and know what you don't know. (I tend to calculate risks of TRYING to learn stuff I mi
-
Hi again developers X| I study my first semester of computer science, and I like programming and computers but I feel like evrything is going too fast. We are jumping from one subject to another and we learn everything at once. We started to learn java in september and now we are jumping into PHP and databases, Swing, JavaFX, UML and professional software enginnering arcituctures, algorithms and propositional logic. I hardly managed to learn basic Java concepts and practice them and I already have to build Java Swing applications, manage databases and know common algorithms and on top of that train up my propositional logic-skills. I simple don't have time for that even if I would like to. I watch the lectures online (Because of COVID-19 we have online classes), but I don't learn anything from them that is requiered to pass the exams. If you want to pass the exams the school books and lectures aren't enough. You have to learn from other sources. After reading 1000 pages of a book I realize that I only learn a tiny bit of what I have to know to survive. I feel like I only study, from morning to evening but yet don't manage to learn what I have to know in order to pass exams. And now I wonder... Is Computer Science only meant for people who are already programmers and who know everything about computers, or maybe I have severe ADHD? Because I can't focus on so many tasks and subjects at once. It takes much effort for me to focus on one thing and then I have to jump to another and another... When I focus on one subject and one thing, I usually do well, and I pass my exams, but if I have to do many tasks, study for many exams I can't do it... If I would teach myself programming at home I could go up to this level and I think I could do well, because I really have intrest and motivation, but because of my CS I don't really want to do it anymore. I wonder how people who never wrote any code in their life manage to pass these exams. I feel like people who didn't have any prior knowledge about programming when they started these courses do better than me. I don't know if it make sense to continue, becase my loan is geting higher and higher and I'm... getting dumber and dumber haha :laugh:
Windows 10 does have some built in screen recording capability, and it's probably already installed... Type XBox into search and it should bring up the "XBox Game Bar". It should allow you to record your lectures, and stop and resume them at your leisure. If that helps any.
-
British-American Dictionary[^] They should add other English-speaking countries too. Canadian is closer to American but sometimes follows British. There there'd be the English used in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, India...the first two probably qualify as a different dialect! Off the top of my hand, a couple of Canadian ones that usually puzzle Americans are - eavestrough = US gutter (sometimes used here too, but usually means where water runs along the curb/kerb) - soother = US pacifier
Robust Services Core | Software Techniques for Lemmings | Articles
The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.Close, but no cigar!. Eavesthough - is just what it says, a trough along the eaves of a house to catch and direct rainwater. In the U.S. it's called a gutter, true, but the translation doesn't go both ways :) It's been a long time since I lived in England, but I believe the roadside rain catcher is called a gutter there too.
-
Hi again developers X| I study my first semester of computer science, and I like programming and computers but I feel like evrything is going too fast. We are jumping from one subject to another and we learn everything at once. We started to learn java in september and now we are jumping into PHP and databases, Swing, JavaFX, UML and professional software enginnering arcituctures, algorithms and propositional logic. I hardly managed to learn basic Java concepts and practice them and I already have to build Java Swing applications, manage databases and know common algorithms and on top of that train up my propositional logic-skills. I simple don't have time for that even if I would like to. I watch the lectures online (Because of COVID-19 we have online classes), but I don't learn anything from them that is requiered to pass the exams. If you want to pass the exams the school books and lectures aren't enough. You have to learn from other sources. After reading 1000 pages of a book I realize that I only learn a tiny bit of what I have to know to survive. I feel like I only study, from morning to evening but yet don't manage to learn what I have to know in order to pass exams. And now I wonder... Is Computer Science only meant for people who are already programmers and who know everything about computers, or maybe I have severe ADHD? Because I can't focus on so many tasks and subjects at once. It takes much effort for me to focus on one thing and then I have to jump to another and another... When I focus on one subject and one thing, I usually do well, and I pass my exams, but if I have to do many tasks, study for many exams I can't do it... If I would teach myself programming at home I could go up to this level and I think I could do well, because I really have intrest and motivation, but because of my CS I don't really want to do it anymore. I wonder how people who never wrote any code in their life manage to pass these exams. I feel like people who didn't have any prior knowledge about programming when they started these courses do better than me. I don't know if it make sense to continue, becase my loan is geting higher and higher and I'm... getting dumber and dumber haha :laugh:
Well if your university is anything like mine was (which was notorious for being the most encyclopedic in the region), then what you're experiencing is normal. The first 4 semesters are supposed to give you an existential crisis. They are supposed to make you feel small in a larger world. Unlike high school, the university is meant to be a humiliating experience at first. Towards the end you crave knowledge and experience, not good grades. Passing grades give you a smile of victory, but high marks land you in the zone and you feel like Pele after winning the world cup. To graduate from the university is to come into the world, again, alone, but with the knowledge you have resources you can wield to solve a problem. I was trained to be a Computer Engineer so our scope may be slightly different (Yes electronics is second nature and the Riemann sphere still gets me dizzy). Just remember that this step is just the first of many endurance races, but the most formative.
-
Close, but no cigar!. Eavesthough - is just what it says, a trough along the eaves of a house to catch and direct rainwater. In the U.S. it's called a gutter, true, but the translation doesn't go both ways :) It's been a long time since I lived in England, but I believe the roadside rain catcher is called a gutter there too.
I didn't mean to imply that it went both ways. Eavestroughing is only what's on a house.
Robust Services Core | Software Techniques for Lemmings | Articles
The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. -
Hi again developers X| I study my first semester of computer science, and I like programming and computers but I feel like evrything is going too fast. We are jumping from one subject to another and we learn everything at once. We started to learn java in september and now we are jumping into PHP and databases, Swing, JavaFX, UML and professional software enginnering arcituctures, algorithms and propositional logic. I hardly managed to learn basic Java concepts and practice them and I already have to build Java Swing applications, manage databases and know common algorithms and on top of that train up my propositional logic-skills. I simple don't have time for that even if I would like to. I watch the lectures online (Because of COVID-19 we have online classes), but I don't learn anything from them that is requiered to pass the exams. If you want to pass the exams the school books and lectures aren't enough. You have to learn from other sources. After reading 1000 pages of a book I realize that I only learn a tiny bit of what I have to know to survive. I feel like I only study, from morning to evening but yet don't manage to learn what I have to know in order to pass exams. And now I wonder... Is Computer Science only meant for people who are already programmers and who know everything about computers, or maybe I have severe ADHD? Because I can't focus on so many tasks and subjects at once. It takes much effort for me to focus on one thing and then I have to jump to another and another... When I focus on one subject and one thing, I usually do well, and I pass my exams, but if I have to do many tasks, study for many exams I can't do it... If I would teach myself programming at home I could go up to this level and I think I could do well, because I really have intrest and motivation, but because of my CS I don't really want to do it anymore. I wonder how people who never wrote any code in their life manage to pass these exams. I feel like people who didn't have any prior knowledge about programming when they started these courses do better than me. I don't know if it make sense to continue, becase my loan is geting higher and higher and I'm... getting dumber and dumber haha :laugh:
-
I would take issue with your usage of CS. CS IMO is the study of computing in the abstract - algorithms, complexity theory, etc. In order to apply CS in the "real world", we use computer languages, operating systems, etc. The difference is analogous to that between physics and electronics.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
Precisely so. Computer Science is infested with wannabe mathematicians, and Software Engineering is infested with wannabe engineers. :laugh:
Robust Services Core | Software Techniques for Lemmings | Articles
The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. -
Hi again developers X| I study my first semester of computer science, and I like programming and computers but I feel like evrything is going too fast. We are jumping from one subject to another and we learn everything at once. We started to learn java in september and now we are jumping into PHP and databases, Swing, JavaFX, UML and professional software enginnering arcituctures, algorithms and propositional logic. I hardly managed to learn basic Java concepts and practice them and I already have to build Java Swing applications, manage databases and know common algorithms and on top of that train up my propositional logic-skills. I simple don't have time for that even if I would like to. I watch the lectures online (Because of COVID-19 we have online classes), but I don't learn anything from them that is requiered to pass the exams. If you want to pass the exams the school books and lectures aren't enough. You have to learn from other sources. After reading 1000 pages of a book I realize that I only learn a tiny bit of what I have to know to survive. I feel like I only study, from morning to evening but yet don't manage to learn what I have to know in order to pass exams. And now I wonder... Is Computer Science only meant for people who are already programmers and who know everything about computers, or maybe I have severe ADHD? Because I can't focus on so many tasks and subjects at once. It takes much effort for me to focus on one thing and then I have to jump to another and another... When I focus on one subject and one thing, I usually do well, and I pass my exams, but if I have to do many tasks, study for many exams I can't do it... If I would teach myself programming at home I could go up to this level and I think I could do well, because I really have intrest and motivation, but because of my CS I don't really want to do it anymore. I wonder how people who never wrote any code in their life manage to pass these exams. I feel like people who didn't have any prior knowledge about programming when they started these courses do better than me. I don't know if it make sense to continue, becase my loan is geting higher and higher and I'm... getting dumber and dumber haha :laugh:
I would say that their teaching style does not work for you rather than CS is not for beginners. Different people learn things in different ways. Some learn best by books, some learn best by lectures, others learn best by simply diving into the deep end and having a go. Find a learning style that works for you. That said I would suspect that many people who do CS typically have years of technical experience behind them (from mucking around with computers after school, to being treated as the families IT support person), thus making CS more the piece of paper solidifying their knowledge than actual learning, but even if you don't have that technical background it really just comes down to approaching computing with the right mindset.
-
Hi again developers X| I study my first semester of computer science, and I like programming and computers but I feel like evrything is going too fast. We are jumping from one subject to another and we learn everything at once. We started to learn java in september and now we are jumping into PHP and databases, Swing, JavaFX, UML and professional software enginnering arcituctures, algorithms and propositional logic. I hardly managed to learn basic Java concepts and practice them and I already have to build Java Swing applications, manage databases and know common algorithms and on top of that train up my propositional logic-skills. I simple don't have time for that even if I would like to. I watch the lectures online (Because of COVID-19 we have online classes), but I don't learn anything from them that is requiered to pass the exams. If you want to pass the exams the school books and lectures aren't enough. You have to learn from other sources. After reading 1000 pages of a book I realize that I only learn a tiny bit of what I have to know to survive. I feel like I only study, from morning to evening but yet don't manage to learn what I have to know in order to pass exams. And now I wonder... Is Computer Science only meant for people who are already programmers and who know everything about computers, or maybe I have severe ADHD? Because I can't focus on so many tasks and subjects at once. It takes much effort for me to focus on one thing and then I have to jump to another and another... When I focus on one subject and one thing, I usually do well, and I pass my exams, but if I have to do many tasks, study for many exams I can't do it... If I would teach myself programming at home I could go up to this level and I think I could do well, because I really have intrest and motivation, but because of my CS I don't really want to do it anymore. I wonder how people who never wrote any code in their life manage to pass these exams. I feel like people who didn't have any prior knowledge about programming when they started these courses do better than me. I don't know if it make sense to continue, becase my loan is geting higher and higher and I'm... getting dumber and dumber haha :laugh:
My son is attempting to do a University course with a lot of CS subjects this year at Monash University. He is really struggling. He was a 94 ATAR student last year - at a good school and is pretty smart. A lot of the observations he makes are similar to yours. My observation is that the online format does not translate well to University. At least the way Monash seems to be doing it. The large lecture theatre size classes do not lend themselves to deep questions, and the video sessions appear to be by themselves of low value. Along with that - lack of human contact is debilitating for some peoples motivation. Everyone says that first year University is hard, because it's a mental shift from High School - but I think this year is particularly hard because of COVID and many organisations being caught with their pants down. Fingers crossed, if you can stick it out - things will improve for next year.
-
Hi again developers X| I study my first semester of computer science, and I like programming and computers but I feel like evrything is going too fast. We are jumping from one subject to another and we learn everything at once. We started to learn java in september and now we are jumping into PHP and databases, Swing, JavaFX, UML and professional software enginnering arcituctures, algorithms and propositional logic. I hardly managed to learn basic Java concepts and practice them and I already have to build Java Swing applications, manage databases and know common algorithms and on top of that train up my propositional logic-skills. I simple don't have time for that even if I would like to. I watch the lectures online (Because of COVID-19 we have online classes), but I don't learn anything from them that is requiered to pass the exams. If you want to pass the exams the school books and lectures aren't enough. You have to learn from other sources. After reading 1000 pages of a book I realize that I only learn a tiny bit of what I have to know to survive. I feel like I only study, from morning to evening but yet don't manage to learn what I have to know in order to pass exams. And now I wonder... Is Computer Science only meant for people who are already programmers and who know everything about computers, or maybe I have severe ADHD? Because I can't focus on so many tasks and subjects at once. It takes much effort for me to focus on one thing and then I have to jump to another and another... When I focus on one subject and one thing, I usually do well, and I pass my exams, but if I have to do many tasks, study for many exams I can't do it... If I would teach myself programming at home I could go up to this level and I think I could do well, because I really have intrest and motivation, but because of my CS I don't really want to do it anymore. I wonder how people who never wrote any code in their life manage to pass these exams. I feel like people who didn't have any prior knowledge about programming when they started these courses do better than me. I don't know if it make sense to continue, becase my loan is geting higher and higher and I'm... getting dumber and dumber haha :laugh:
My background is in science, though I did sit an exam in Java (writing code with pen and paper) and I code a little bit as part of my work (Java, JS and some PHP mostly) so I can't speak about CS specifically and so what I write might or might not be relevant! First of all: have you actually seen any past or mock exam questions? Maybe you are overthinking it, lecturers generally focus exams on a core number of themes as they don't expect students to know everything. Often the same recycled questions are dressed differently. Doing a degree is just the beginning, the real skill comes later when you put it into practice for a few years. Lecturers know this and usually throw a lot of stuff at you but test mainly the core plus their own pet favourite topics (of course they make it extra hard to earn a distinction though). They often also place emphasis during lectures on what they aim to examine. It pays to be 'in-tune' with the lecturers so attending all classes certainly helps. Exam Qs often look harder than they really are. That said, to get a high grade requires more than the minimum asked for. Try to understand what they are really looking for and focus your efforts accordingly. Second point. When I was learning to code I dabbled with several different languages, which was confusing at the time but paid off later. I went from struggling with the material, to coding but getting frustrated with bugs and other issues, to simply enjoying coding as it became more effortless with practice. Something just clicked one day, but only after many days of frustrating work. 'Rome wasn't built in a day', as they say. Third point. Once you learn one language thoroughly, others become 10 times easier. Perhaps rather than just learning a bit of each, focus on one you feel most comfortable with first then the others should become easier. You can't learn several until you have learned one. Reading books helps, but in the end writing code to solve your own problems is probably the best way to learn. Online hands-on coding tutorials can be very useful. Finally, if it really seems too tough then remember you can get a coding job without a CS degree, you just need to be confident with the required skills and tools (and highly skilled in interview techniques).
-
Hi again developers X| I study my first semester of computer science, and I like programming and computers but I feel like evrything is going too fast. We are jumping from one subject to another and we learn everything at once. We started to learn java in september and now we are jumping into PHP and databases, Swing, JavaFX, UML and professional software enginnering arcituctures, algorithms and propositional logic. I hardly managed to learn basic Java concepts and practice them and I already have to build Java Swing applications, manage databases and know common algorithms and on top of that train up my propositional logic-skills. I simple don't have time for that even if I would like to. I watch the lectures online (Because of COVID-19 we have online classes), but I don't learn anything from them that is requiered to pass the exams. If you want to pass the exams the school books and lectures aren't enough. You have to learn from other sources. After reading 1000 pages of a book I realize that I only learn a tiny bit of what I have to know to survive. I feel like I only study, from morning to evening but yet don't manage to learn what I have to know in order to pass exams. And now I wonder... Is Computer Science only meant for people who are already programmers and who know everything about computers, or maybe I have severe ADHD? Because I can't focus on so many tasks and subjects at once. It takes much effort for me to focus on one thing and then I have to jump to another and another... When I focus on one subject and one thing, I usually do well, and I pass my exams, but if I have to do many tasks, study for many exams I can't do it... If I would teach myself programming at home I could go up to this level and I think I could do well, because I really have intrest and motivation, but because of my CS I don't really want to do it anymore. I wonder how people who never wrote any code in their life manage to pass these exams. I feel like people who didn't have any prior knowledge about programming when they started these courses do better than me. I don't know if it make sense to continue, becase my loan is geting higher and higher and I'm... getting dumber and dumber haha :laugh:
Most thinks at the University level require a passion. Some people are naturally gifted. I was not one of them. In order to be "successful" in the university experience you kind of have to have the mindset of "what's in this for me"? What I am going to do with this and how can I apply it to achieve the goals the Lord Jesus has set for me. Sadly, I wondered though college without focusing on Christ but I did have goals. I started in Industrial Electronics and Electrical Engineering and had trouble. I did okay for a while but I could see how to apply the topics to anything useful in my life. I felt the Lord possibly drawing me to music and I tried that for a while but I was too lazy and didn't seek the Lord enough. I found music seemed just as hard as Electrical Engineering (take Aural Perception for Example and how fast those kiddos rattle out their major/minor and other scales), but that I wasn't ready to put in the work at that stage of my life. I eventually got my BS in Computer Science because it came easier for me than the other diciplines. Why did CS come easier for me? Because I already liked Math and Music and I already had programming as a hobby. That was enough to get me through some of of the material with less effort. I wanted to create my own code and release it to the public. I had a "passion" for programming and it didn't conflict too much with what the professors were teaching. When you find your "passion" and the "why" the how will come. I haven't completed an Ironman yet, but if you have the time or money you might consider training for an ultra-endurance event some suffer. Take some challenge that seems impossible like an Ironman and go for it with some strong committed Christian friends that will hold you accountable. If I keep doing it and don't quit, you will be surprised at the barriers you overcome. As I said, I have yet to finish an Ironman, but I have overcome some hurdles that I thought very well might stop me in the beginning. The point is, you have to find a passion. Maybe you want to code Video Games and put them on GitHub this Summer. You can get started with SVG, HTML and WebAudio: SVG.js v3.0 | Other Elements Personally, I don't like Java or PhP. I feel both languages have "issues" but they are probably good beginner languages since they don't have a lot of "arbitrary" barr
