Going to uni after summer

[habiba29]

Hi am due to take up a computer science course at heriot watt uni in Scotland after summer. Am just worried I won't be able to pick up on languages as I don't really have any prior programming experience except for programming a basic battle ships game on pascal. I just wanted to know of other people's experiences ?

Ps am new to the forum

[Andi]

did you check for any pre classes? there are often special classes before the uni starts if special knowledge is required.

[habiba29]

Em no I believe they don't as they teach the programming from scratch but the other problem is that I am planning on taking 3 weeks off for hajj(Muslim pilgrimage) but I don't know yet as its 3 weeks off the first 2 months lol

[Mattie432]

Having just finished my first year of a Comp. Sci course i can say that for the programming you should be fine, if the course is starting from scratch then the first few weeks will be very basic things. The problem is your other modules, for me the first few weeks were the groundwork for the rest of the year and without considerable work i doubt i would have been able to catch up (especially after 3 weeks).

imo: if its within the first month then okay (so long as your prepared to catch up), after that i wouldn't even contemplate it.

[habiba29]

Well the course starts in 15 th of September and ill be leaving in the first week of October

[habiba29]

Like most of the maths In it I have already done same with the logic and gates etc its just really finite things I don't already know hopefully after my exams I am going to teach myself java and c++

[Guest Teddybear]

Guys I envy you your awesome UK universities where you can actually choose what you study. Here in Czech republic the only think I can study is "Informatics" (I can choose between C/C++  and Java based subjects)

[habiba29]

Yeah it's pretty good also if you live in Scotland like I do we pay no tuition fee so it doesn't matter if your parents are rich or poor it comes down to your grade if you go to uni.

[lutzee]

Don't worry!

 

I started uni at Coventry on computer science September last year, they start from the very start of basics programming, They will teach everyone like they don't know anything to make sure everyone knows the required knowledge, they can't just let a minority struggle

 

The break in October shouldn't be too bad, 3 weeks isn't that long and should be easy to catch up the programming on, its the other modules that you have to work to keep up on. 

 

I'm not sure of the Technicalities of the pilgrimage but if you can, take some work with you and if you can try get access to the on-line resources. But I completely understand if you can't do any of this, if so don't worry, there will be help available to let you catch up!

[habiba29]

I am planning On taking my laptop so I could probably keep up to date on work

[habiba29]

And yeah how are you finding the course ?

[56KBs]

I'm currently at University doing Computer Science, just coming up to the end of my first year. If you've done Pascal before (I had done it at A-Level) then you'll find programming in other languages much easier than learning your first language. I wouldn't worry too much, C is somewhat similar to Pascal and C++ builds on that (Assuming you do C/C++ in your first year).

[alpenwasser]

I don't specifically know about your uni, but a buddy of mine did informatics at mine,

and he said that there were a ton of students in first year who had never programmed

before at all, or at least very little.

Around here uni courses usually do start at the basics, they just progress very quickly

to more advanced stuff. But if you work hard you can usually keep up. Taking three weeks

off might get very tricky here though (that's a big chunk of a 14 week semester), but that

might be different for you.

Best of luck :)

[habiba29]

Yeah thanks guys I have to say this forum is really good and you guys are really friendly big up to you guys and slick. And yeah that's one reason why I didn't pick Edinburgh uni it's all theory no practical and they move on really quickly. Just because I would like to be ahead of what I will be doing do you guys have any recommendations of tutorials for java or c++

[WhatARoaster]

Yo man, im at Strathclyde doing a Computing Science and Electrical Engineering degree and before i started all i had done was Visual Basic (awful) at Higher, and from there ive had alot of experience with C, Arduino, Java, ect with some with javascript, assembly, python, php, marie, SQL queries, VHDL, ect There was also classes that were offered that used haskell, c++, ect (i didnt choose those).

 

I dont know much about the herriot watt program, but if its anything like the Strathclyde one, first year (and maybe second) will be split theory and practical in probably 1 language, teaching you mostly programming approaches and techniques. And from there you will be able to implement the theory into a wider array of languages that are available. (In my first year i only used java, in second year mainly java and C, third year on is a far wider use of different languages.

In reality first year will teach you programming as if you've never even heard of it before, and the later years will give you the knowledge to be able to use any langue you should desire.

[habiba29]

Nice thanks that was really informative. Yeah am really looking forward to the course and VB lol I hate that thing that's why our adv higher teacher said she picked pascal because it is the easiest and most adaptable language. Again any tutorials on java I would just like to use my 5 month summer holidays doing something meaningful

[WhatARoaster]

Nice thanks that was really informative. Yeah am really looking forward to the course and VB lol I hate that thing that's why our adv higher teacher said she picked pascal because it is the easiest and most adaptable language. Again any tutorials on java I would just like to use my 5 month summer holidays doing something meaningful

 

 If you want to start early, theres a good chance your first year programming courses will be based upon "Head First With Java" (mine were).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Head-First-Java-Kathy-Sierra/dp/0596009208

 

 

There's also Oracle's own Java tutorials:

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/

[habiba29]

If you want to start early, theres a good chance your first year programming courses will be based upon "Head First With Java" (mine were).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Head-First-Java-Kathy-Sierra/dp/0596009208

There's also Oracle's own Java tutorials:

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/

Thanks ill have a look in to it as soon as my adv higher exams are over