<p>I never did any programming before college and once I was in college I didn't have time to do any of my own programs because I spent so much time trying to figure out how to do my assignments. The key difference between the successful and unsuccessful students in my early CS classes was the pre-college experience. </p>
<p>I still have all of my programming books, two years after switching to MechE. I used Java in school and bought books for C and C++ but never read them. Maybe I could get better at it now that I have a better grasp of engineering. The only "programming" I have to do this semester is in Excel. I don't call it programming, but we have to set up spreadsheets for design projects and solving engineering analysis problems. I made my own GPA calculator as well, but used Excel for that.</p>
<p>is it easy? i think i share the “typed of person"opinion”</p>
<p>I was chem but chem was the only subject had difficulty in. I never studied for math of physics but got A’s. I studied all night for chem and got C’s. </p>
<p>i ended up switching because i saw my roommate doing his HW and it was really easy .For me at least. So i took my first programming class ever this past fall and i picked up up really quik i even help a couple other studies pass the class by helping them understand programming. I never knew anything about computers before and i still barley know anything
which if that is your case may put you at a disadvantage because most people in the major are in it because they are techy peeps and already know alot of stuff. I think i just have really good reasoning skills but i have a really bad memory which is y i was doing good in math.phys but not chem. You need to remember alot in chem and i just cant do it.</p>
<p>if you are good at solving problems(not necessarily math,more abstract things) like how can i make this do that without doing this or something else and doing it in the most effective general way.then youd prob be good
it does tak alot of time tho but its soo worth it when you get your program working the way you planned.</p>
<p>in my opinion as well the reason i think CS may be harder( i disagree with assigning levels of difficulty to majors)
is because there are no limits to what type of assignments you can get.In ,say , chemistry
you need labs and chemicals(which can be dangerous) to do assignments. but in programming you dont so in theory the professor can reasonably ask you to write a really difficult program and you wouldnt have any excusses.</p>
<p>!!!i have a question for peeps that already did the major.!!!</p>
<p>since im basicly done with everything exetp cs course all my classes next year wiil be upper div CS
im kinda scared that i wont be able to do well because all the work each class reqiures
i really hope i dont fail out
(4 calsses a quarter)
in fall im taking
101
110
105
30
will that be doable or will i need to get an aderol perscript.</p>
<p>Okay, I am not a CS major (yet), just a junior in highschool. I will vouch for those who said that programming is not for everyone, just a few kinds of people with a special way of thinking. It is either you get it or you don’t. I have been programming for 6 years now, started C++ when I was 11, it took a while for me to get the hang of it (as you might expect a 11 year teaching himself programming…) Now, the thing is, I think I was able to do that because I have the right “mind”. Now, that being said, I started teaching myself assembly just this spring break, and I can say that it officially blew my mind. I understood it all, but what blew my mind was how it connections I made in my head. I understood why pointers really existed and how they work. Honestly, programming is my passion and hobby. It is not for everyone.</p>
<p>This thread is pointless since everyone is pretty much wrong. You don’t need a “special” mind as in you are just born a programmer. This idea probably has to do a lot with CC’s culture. You need the right MINDSET, however. Programming is like building a recipe. You try to make something, but you need the ingredients(variables) and steps(functions) to create the meal(program). I didn’t understand programming throughout most of APCS because I just thought I had to randomly type **** into the computer hoping I was going to get the right answer. That’s not going to get you anywhere. You have to see the problem you are trying to solve and break it down into smaller steps. Each of those steps is a problem. Then you keep going until you get to a line of code. You just have to know how to use the language you are using which comes with practice, and you use it solve a specific problem. You start with easy problems then work on harder ones when you feel comfortable.</p>
<p>Beats me, I graduated undergraduate and graduate CS at a respected state university, never once found it remotely hard. I keep learning 30 years later, and unless it’s device drivers and the like, it’s not difficult. To me at least.</p>
<p>The calculus math to get there is hard (good thing I did all that in my birth country). The discrete/funny math of CS is not THAT hard (but then I love operations research and numerical analysis). Statistics, I love even more. </p>
<p>To succeed in CS you need curiosity and ability to think way outside the box.</p>
<p>Did you ever wonder why nobody in recorded history has produced a book that teaches any Joe Plumber guy how to program?</p>
<p>Some of us are born to be programmers, I hate to bring this up. We can spot bugs in software that elude other people, can find holes in requirements very quickly, can design a big system in our head and code it orders of magnitude faster than our coworkers, and when technology changes or a project needs it, we can learn a new technology in a week.</p>
<p>You are correct, it all boils down to decomposing a problem down to where it is easy to program chunks, and that’s what programming minds are all about. See the forest and the trees at the same time.</p>
<p>I would not be bragging if I told our esteemed audience that my software usually has **no **bugs. Why? because I decompose the problem into miniature chunks, implement one chunk at a time, a few lines at a time, test, integrate. Then the next, next, etc. I rarely have to go back and fix anything. It works. How can you screw up 4 lines of C++ code?</p>
<p>Anyone can be a good programmer, but there’s some of us that are well beyond ‘good’ in our own ways.</p>