I am a computer science student at USF, and I’m doing absolutely awful in my Data Structures class and my Logic and Design class. I have a 3.5 GPA and every other semester before this one has been fine, I’ve made all A’s and B’s in most of my classes, but everything is going down hill this semester and the stress is starting to kill me. I did go through several life changes, before I only had one other roommate, but this semester 3 new roommates moved into my student housing apartment and I also acquired a girlfriend, which Is getting very hard to manage with school and work( I also work part time around 15-20 to live on my own with financial aid). My Data Structures professor recommended that I drop the class since there doesn’t seem to be a way to recover, and she also mentioned that my programming skills were very weak, and she even questioned whether or not i actually take object oriented design (which is the pre-requisite).
It feels as though I was un-prepared for data structures. In my previous object oriented class, grades were determined mainly by the exams, we had 5 total exams and programming assignments that were only worth 1 point, they were counted as submission grades only since they encountered issues in which students were caught cheating copying code. However in my data structures class, the programming projects account for everything, around 40% of the total grade. I talked to students who took the class during the summer( i took it in the spring), and they said that for their homework, they had to code over 1000 lines of code and it seemed like they were exposed to it waaaaaay more than I was. It felt like I got the easy route.
I feel so defeated and under prepared for this class, and i’m starting to doubt myself severely. I’m going to end up dropping data structures, and I also failed my exam for Logic and Design, which puts me at a 45 in the class that i’m going to try my hardest to recover from, we only have 2 exams and a final + homework, he does curve at the end however. The stress is killing me, what do i do?
I didn’t take a course entirely on data structures, but my algorithms classes covered lots of data structures (min/max heaps, BSTs, linked lists, skip lists, etc.) so I guess that counts…?
Since you seem to be underprepared in terms of programming, you may want to, on your own time, really read through online tutorials of the language(s) you’re using, and perhaps do some coding exercises to become more fluent (e.g. past exercises from your OOP class).
So it sounds like the prerequisite class was awful. You need to learn the material from the summer object oriented programming class. See if you can see their programming assignments, and do them. See if you can get a tutor to work with you, or see if the professor can recommend something to improve your preparation so that you can ace it next time.
Frankly, I think 15-20 hours is too many hours to work for a computer science student. Either take a lighter load and take longer to graduate, or work fewer hours and find a cheaper way to live. You can't get blood from a stone. Computer Science is hard but very lucrative. If it wasn't hard, it wouldn't be lucrative. Every hour you invest in studying has a much higher return on investment than working in whatever job you have. You need to put your profession first.
The girlfriend - if she's worth it, she won't be a problem. If she demands too much of your attention now, you need to decide between her and your career. That's your call.
Data structures is a hard class so you need to give time to do it. Drop the class and try again next semester or quarter. I also think working more than 5 or 10 hours is too much. Give yourself chance to succeed.
I’m only working part time because it helps reduce the cost of living near my university, I told my parents about it and they said I have to work. they don’t really understand that I have to make some sacrifice if I want to do well at school.
I’ve been only taking like 3-4 classes a semester because of working two jobs. What I’m extremely worried about now is that I have like a 46 percent in my other class, I had really bad anxiety and overcame to pressure and lost at it at the first exam even though I knew the material. There is one exam, the final, and my homework grades that are left. It will be hard, but I don’t want to give up. Getting this degree is everything to me right now, I want to be successful.
There are many different paths to success. It looks like you are preparing to hit a brick wall here. I’d recommend dropping the class per your professor and using the time to regroup, working on some of the things you are weak in.
When you say drop the class, are you speaking of Data structures, logic design or both? I believe I can recover the Logic and Design class. It’s not impossible.
By dropping one class, how would that affect your financial aid (Part-time vs. Full-time)? Can you transfer to a “less expensive” school that would allow you to devote 100% to your studies (possible commute from home)?
Is USF, University of South Florida? Can you commute to USF, saving on R&M?
Yes I go to University of South Florida.I won’t be able to transfer unless I try to go to UCF or any other college. I’m only taking data structures and logic and design, since I already killed off all the pre reqs and these are the two gateway classes I need to upper level electives. So if I drop one, I believe i’ll move up to computer architecture, and just retake data structures. That way I should be at the credit requirement to receive financial aid. If not i’m not, I’ll have to either find a way to pay for it myself, or move back home and commute. My parents live 1 hour away.