Tips for Uni?

[XDroidie626]

Okay so at the end of the month I start at Uni, I am going to the Open Uni so I can keep a job while learning.

So I will be studying Computer Sciences and then progressing on to a masters in security, my computer science course will also include CISCO CCNA, I hope to either work in Digital forensics or Network security /w Linux.

So what tips could you give to me? any specific applications that I may need for Java and Python? Should I take their extended math courses, it has been a while since I did maths.

Anything else, I don't know what to expect lol

 

Thanks!

 

[dragoon20005]

for Java use NetBean or Eclipse

 

Python go here

 

https://www.python.org/

 

You will need to take the extended math course

 

 

I complete my degree in Computing and Information Systems

[Oshino Shinobu]

You'll probably want to look for some IDE for the languages you're going to be learning. Often, the Uni will either tell you what you need or they'll give you an educational copy if it needs to be paid for. 

 

I personally use NetBeans IDE for Java on my course, but there's loads of them around. Also, a good text editor with Syntax options can be useful if you're not using an IDE. NotePad++ is a common one. I personally use Sublime Text 3 though. 

[smjpl]

Okay so at the end of the month I start at Uni...

 

Don't worry about the things you will need. You will be told what you need. No point learning about an eclipse IDE if you then find that the college uses netbeans or something else.The IDE is the most widely asked questions from noob programmers and also one of the most irrelevant IMO. The first thing is, do you have any experience programming? If not; get some! Knowing the basics will make understanding what your professor is teaching you that much easier (I can't stress this enough!).

 

Next I would look at some common computer algorithms (sorting, tree searching etc.) You don't necsarrily need to learn how to program them (that will come with time), but understand the fundamentals behind them. Many YT tutorials on algorithms can be taught without programming.

[bbrooking18]

If your worried contact the OU to see if they have ant recommendations 

[Robi_g]

Dw about IDEs and more maths = easier in the long run.

[XDroidie626]

Don't worry about the things you will need. You will be told what you need. No point learning about an eclipse IDE if you then find that the college uses netbeans or something else.The IDE is the most widely asked questions from noob programmers and also one of the most irrelevant IMO. The first thing is, do you have any experience programming? If not; get some! Knowing the basics will make understanding what your professor is teaching you that much easier (I can't stress this enough!).

 

Next I would look at some common computer algorithms (sorting, tree searching etc.) You don't necsarrily need to learn how to program them (that will come with time), but understand the fundamentals behind them. Many YT tutorials on algorithms can be taught without programming.

I did VB.net in college so I have a basic idea of programming and how stuff like strings work, never did anything super big

[Gandalf the Dank]

DO NOT BUY GET A CAR LOAN. I did that during university. Worst decision of my life. 

[XDroidie626]

DO NOT BUY GET A CAR LOAN. I did that during university. Worst decision of my life. 

Got a car already, not on loan  

[XDroidie626]

Okay they sent me some package today, it has a sense board inside it, which is for the first module. they say I just need the sense ide thing what ever they use, never used sense or scratch so no idea what its like, dont like the fact its DnD style of programming with no syntax

[smjpl]

I did VB.net in college so I have a basic idea of programming and how stuff like strings work, never did anything super big

 

Okay then I would argue that learning the fundamentals of programming will be the single biggest advantage to you. The reason being is that programming is only a tool that computer scientists use. What you will be required to learn is what you can actually do with that tool (i.e. creating algorithms etc.). It is much harder to learn what the hell is going on if you are only starting to learn how the tool works.

 

You should be really confident in knowing the basics: data types (int, string etc.), loops (for, while, do-while), logic (if, else, case/switch statements), arrays (single and multidimensional).

 

Then you should be looking at creating functions (abstracting common tasks into functions so you can easily call the function to do said task).

 

Go find some examples of programming questions so that you can implement these things for yourself. Learning tutorials (like thenewboston or derekbanas) isn't enough. Thenewboston is really good at teaching you all the basics (i.e. everything listed above) but you really need to try some examples yourself. Once you learn the basics, the best thing you can do is just start experimenting with programming. Copying from a tutorial teaches you nothing! Start trying to create your own little programs (little compound interest calculators and things like that). The are boring but you will learn the fundamentals so much better.

 

(Spend a couple days to a week doing everything above ^^ (depending on your available time skill level)) Keep doing more and more complex examples (trust me!).

 

I like to derekbana for some of the more complex topics (although I only discovered him when I knew quite a bit more about programming so it may be difficult if you are new to programming)

 

Then learn about object orientated programming (OOP), (this can be hard to grasp as the concepts are very much about abstract ideas rather than a language functionality). This is one of those things that will just make sense after a while. Look up lots of videos on the theory (don't spend all the time on programming as the ide)

 

Once you have a good idea of these, start looking data structures (linked lists are a good place to start). Make sure you have everything else down first! If you get good at that, start looking at some sorting algorithms (they are quite fun to learn).

 

This is probably far too much to get through but if you are into it and quick to learn you could easily do it!

 

As a personal preference I suggest start with Java. It has many of the advanced concepts (like OOP) but is much better to learn than something like C or C++. Trying to learn the fundamentals of arrays while dealing with out of bounds array references is not fun! Basically Java is more noob proof than C/C++. There is plenty of examples for it as well. Go C# if you don't want to do Java but Java is a really good place to start.