Did any of you learn programming while in high school?

[AlitCandle]

How did you guys balance being in school(maybe being in clubs or sports, and having friends) while also learning computer science?

[Cheraphy]

I did. I had 2 close friends that I regularly met with outside of school, and I was in marching band. Those friends were also interested in programming at the time and the marching season kept me from doing too much studying. But, outside of that it was no big deal. I admit I spent more time reading comp sci texts in class than I did actually paying attention. still graduated with a 3.8 GPA. :P (on a 4.0 scale)

[N36fSL3A]

I just did my homework in study hall and if I had time programmed. Because who actually STUDIES?

[BHX]

I was only taught BASIC in 7th and 8th grade. High school was just keyboarding and computer art courses. As for self teaching, I just bought books and did the examples. Did nothing for my confidence though. Though, in my school, I balanced them easily.

[jwkNwA7f]

I self taught myself programming while in middle school. I did all of my homework in study hall. Then when I got home I programmed. I almost never studied for tests (I still ended with a 99 average) :)

[Dy7SLyTq]

How did you guys balance being in school

ha your funny. there was no balance. programming was all i did, and my grades tanked

[Veltas]

Never learnt much CS, just programming.

Mind you I do Maths, so have picked up a lot of important algorithms and data structures so have a bit of basic CS under my belt from that.

I also hang around a lot of CS students and pester them for free tuition.

[a k n]

I did (am doing) , I just managed to get a CGPA of 10 (on a 10 grade scale) on grade 10,I am currently in the 11th grade.

I always try to get as much time for CS related readings on the web or in the library(currently reading Computer Networks by Andrew S. Tanenbaum) , my school CS course is like boring to me (which includes extremely basic C++).
Basically I started programming when I was in grade 9|10.

[Austin J]

Lots of people are learning programming in highschool (myself included) and some even in junior high. Is it because there are more programming prodigies among my generation? No, it's simply because a lot of the programmers today didn't have the resources available that my generation does.

[3qX21hU5]

I think it would be much easier to learn programming while you are younger and still in middle school, high school, college or whatever. Mainly because you most likely have more time to study and experiment when you are that age.

[twiggystardust]

Austin J: You are absolutely correct. I wish my high school would have offered programming courses, I would have taken every one! But I grew up in a tiny town that only had typing courses and how to make websites with front page, and I don't remember a bit of it at all.

Zereo: I think that has a lot to do with it, having the time to do it, after school even in college most times, you have to have a job and use your time for things that you are already obligated to do, learning programming for me at least has been whenever I have some downtime at work or home.

[3qX21hU5]

Same here lately I have been only been able to program on the weekends other then that I am working long shifts and by the time I get home all I can do is eat something spend 30 mins with my girlfriend then head to bed and do it all over again.

Ohh well though. Been looking for a programming job lately so maybe that will pay off soon or later.

[S6k9GNh0]

I programmed in middle school on a Dell B110 using Java and Eclipse. But I never got the hang of it... I then started on Unrealscript and from there, Pascal, and then Java, and finally, C++... all through out high school.

[LB]

They teach Computer Science as an elective at my school, Comp Sci 1 and 2 are Java and Comp Sci 3 is SAS. I got into Comp Sci 2, skipping Comp Sci 1, during 11th grade, so I never found out what Comp Sci 4 was.