New to programming, need some advice
closed account (i8bjz8AR)
Hello, I'm very new to programming. I attend university and I'm currently in a couple classes as I have completed most of my general education requirements. I'm in discrete math and computer science 1. Discrete math is going well, aced my first test and following the logic fairly well. However, a few weeks ago, I had my first computer science midterm and I got a d- on it, while most other students did fairly well. I can definitely see myself being a programmer someday. I love code and it interests me a lot, figuring out problems and all. The next class I would take would be computer science 2, next semester. I feel like I can get through this class with all high enough grade to place into cs2. I do need to do well on the next test here in a few weeks though. Right now in class, we are working with functions and arguments, having already covered if statements, nested if loops, while loops, etc..., opening/closing files, input, output of data, and we're going to be getting into arrays early next week probably. Any advice for practice tests(with multiple choice) or for reviewing? On our first test, I did decent on the programs, with minor mistakes but the multiple choice hurt me big time. I've tried this websites tutorial but wondered if you guys would recommend anything else... Thanks!
If you want to become good at something practice all the time.
Reading about programming is nothing like practical experience.
At home create few projects like:
- console calculator (menu with add, subtract, multiply, etc. for real numbers, imaginary numbers, matrices)
- basic games like tic-tac-toe, ships, tetris
- network communicator
etc
Reading about programming is nothing like practical experience.
At home create few projects like:
- console calculator (menu with add, subtract, multiply, etc. for real numbers, imaginary numbers, matrices)
- basic games like tic-tac-toe, ships, tetris
- network communicator
etc
| nested if loops |
Interesting. I haven't encountered an if loop yet.
Find some of your fellow students who did well... study with them.
It sounds like you have all the potential to become a good programmer. Interest is key.
Make sure you understand why you got the multiple choice questions wrong. Also, I'll second what tath said: programming is a craft as much as an academic study. Just as you can't learn to play football or do woodworking in a classroom alone, you can't lean to program without doing it. Write code. Allow lots of time for completing your programming assignments.
Make sure you understand why you got the multiple choice questions wrong. Also, I'll second what tath said: programming is a craft as much as an academic study. Just as you can't learn to play football or do woodworking in a classroom alone, you can't lean to program without doing it. Write code. Allow lots of time for completing your programming assignments.
Hi,
If you did well with the program writing part, then that means you have a fairly good idea of what you are doing, it's just the annoying detail of the multi-choice, so don't be put off by these early results :+)
My advice would be to firstly make sure you know what you can and can't do and why, with all the things you learn: whether it be the different types (int double etc); Flow control (if else, loops etc); or files; or whatever topic it is. Try to prove these things (either way) by writing code.
Knowing all the terms is handy too. For example: type, assignment, equality, operator, relational, cast, implicit, explicit, declaration, definition, argument, parameter, statement, expression, compound statement, scope etc.
With the multi- choice questions, I am guessing they are targeted at really testing whether one knows all the details, hence my advice in the previous paragraphs. Try to get hold of more examples of those multi choice questions if you can. Write code to solve the questions that suit this. E.g what is the output for this code?
Learning a debugger is handy, you can step through code and watch the values of the variables line by line.
In a previous century, when I was at Uni, we had negative marking of the multi-choice: -0.5 for a wrong answer. Fortunately they changed their mind on that: only 15% were going to pass! :+D
Also, for those that did really well, there might be some who have been working on their programming for years before they started university - some even since they were 12 years old !
Now, I say all these things, but Uni is tough - you have 5 other subjects to do as well - can't do 40 hrs/week on 1 of them. The good thing is that you are interested, so that makes it easier to do a little extra here and there.
Any way Good Luck, don't hesitate to ask questions here, there are plenty of people here to help :+)
If you did well with the program writing part, then that means you have a fairly good idea of what you are doing, it's just the annoying detail of the multi-choice, so don't be put off by these early results :+)
My advice would be to firstly make sure you know what you can and can't do and why, with all the things you learn: whether it be the different types (int double etc); Flow control (if else, loops etc); or files; or whatever topic it is. Try to prove these things (either way) by writing code.
Knowing all the terms is handy too. For example: type, assignment, equality, operator, relational, cast, implicit, explicit, declaration, definition, argument, parameter, statement, expression, compound statement, scope etc.
With the multi- choice questions, I am guessing they are targeted at really testing whether one knows all the details, hence my advice in the previous paragraphs. Try to get hold of more examples of those multi choice questions if you can. Write code to solve the questions that suit this. E.g what is the output for this code?
Learning a debugger is handy, you can step through code and watch the values of the variables line by line.
In a previous century, when I was at Uni, we had negative marking of the multi-choice: -0.5 for a wrong answer. Fortunately they changed their mind on that: only 15% were going to pass! :+D
Also, for those that did really well, there might be some who have been working on their programming for years before they started university - some even since they were 12 years old !
Now, I say all these things, but Uni is tough - you have 5 other subjects to do as well - can't do 40 hrs/week on 1 of them. The good thing is that you are interested, so that makes it easier to do a little extra here and there.
Any way Good Luck, don't hesitate to ask questions here, there are plenty of people here to help :+)
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