I took two semesters of programming and they were pretty easy, I got A's in each without studying. But going into my third semester which was an online class I was grossly underprepared so here are some things you should do if you want to learn advanced programming:

-Study a lot now. If you are a beginner you are learning the fundamentals and the advanced concepts do nothing but build on the fundementals. Don't think you are doing easy stuff so you won't need it when you get more advanced, you are learning the basic tools that make up the advanced concepts.

-Keep practicing. In between semester or during summer make sure you keep programming. You can forget a lot of the simple things and it sucks having to learn those all over again while trying to learn the new stuff.

-Mess around with your language. Doing something right the first time is nice but you can learn a lot by making mistakes and fixing them. And when you try new things you might find ways of doing things that work out better for you.

1: I 'study' every time I do a new project.

2: If you forget stuff in CS you shouldn't go for the degree in the first place. That is like an architect forgetting how to build. What I have learned is that the truly important things are the ones that span between multiple languages. They are IDEAS and not really specific study points. IE: Abstract data types. So I don't think I will ever forget these things. They are the reason I signed up for CS.

3: See 1. Also, why fix what isn't broken? If you an idea of what works for a situation and it works well, why try to change it? [CONTEXT -- NEW STUDENT -- KEEP THIS IN MIND] Don't get me wrong, you can find more optimal ways to do things. But shouldn't that be your focus AFTER you have solid knowledge of what goes where? For me (I have only taken 1 1/2 cs classes thus far), I find it MUCH MORE appealing to know a concept works so I can apply it in the future rather than messing around with it 100 ways to see if I can rig it to work in one particular situation. Because I am constantly learning new concepts, it is better for me to get something to work, and keep using it that way unless the need arises to change it.

These are all from someone who literally started cold turkey on CS in the summer.

You should mention what classes you took BTW. Also, failing because it is online might be a mental thing. I personally want to avoid any and all online courses, I don't like em'.

A lot of people have dropped from my 2250 course because they couldn't handle ideas like pointers and linked lists. Does that mean they were grossly unprepared? I don't necessarily think so.

I think only ONE person in my class was the same as me (starting from zero background)

This post was edited by Eep on Oct 12 2012 05:06pm

This is generally good advice for learning just about anything. ...and fairly obvious advice (I would hope) for that matter.

I think everyone has their own way of doing things.

If programming is your career you don't want to learn enough to get by in school, you should want to master your craft.

I have 3 years to get a solid foundation. Mastering a craft, any craft, takes much longer, my friend.

I'm not saying you need to study how to use cin. But they usually don't go over things like cin.getline and cin.ignore, so in later classes when you actually need them you might be in trouble.

Also, what kind of aspie fuck argues with someone giving someone tips for success? Are you worried I'm wrong and people are going to get good at programming for no reason? Or are you worried that you're wrong and you're going to end up failing a class?

1: the fuck is an aspie fuck?

2: See above quote. Do you post about how useful ovens are in the baking forum?

3: I posted my response because you seem to think other people have your problems (they don't)

4:



aren't you getting a bit ahead of yourself? If you are struggling in a course maybe it would be best to not give advice?

and just for the record I am doing great in all of my classes, thanks for asking.

This post was edited by Eep on Oct 13 2012 05:36pm

I still don't know why you are arguing with someone advocating that beginners study more.

Perplexing isn't it? Almost as perplexing as why this was posted in the first place :/

Still looking to define "aspie fuck" btw