Where to start - Computer Science A level.

[limegorilla]

Hello folks!

I have finally stopped godlessly recoding my website and have finally woken up and realized I need an education.

So I have the Computer Science Syllabus, but my school does not offer it. Is there any good place to go to learn this stuff? Will a place like https://lynda.com do it?

 

Regards, Liam

[Teddy07]

Why not move?

I don´t know online computer sciences courses that are taken seriously like a real degree.

[Ithanul]

Not very sure about CS degrees in Spain.

I do have a Associate CS degree and most of it is focused on computer theory, setup, and coding.

 

Though, I heard some good things about lynda (never checked it out myself yet).  Biggest question, what IT field you looking to go into?  Depending on the field, certifications will hold some weight.

[straight_stewie]

5 hours ago, Ithanul said:

Not very sure about CS degrees in Spain.

I do have a Associate CS degree and most of it is focused on computer theory, setup, and coding.

You may want to look into student visas and foreign student programs. I know that the University I went to treated foreign students very, very well, going to great lengths to help them get visas, fund the schooling, and just survive in general. (The university I'm referring to here is Mississippi State University, but there are many, many others in the US that I'm sure would be willing to help).

[Ithanul]

7 hours ago, straight_stewie said:

You may want to look into student visas and foreign student programs. I know that the University I went to treated foreign students very, very well, going to great lengths to help them get visas, fund the schooling, and just survive in general. (The university I'm referring to here is Mississippi State University, but there are many, many others in the US that I'm sure would be willing to help).

I you talking to the OP?

Because I live in the States.

[NoOverflow]

Depend what you want to learn, if you just want learn to code there a lot great book to start with, surprisingly i really recommend the first chapter of "Hacking" (link here : https://nostarch.com/hacking2.htm ) the rest of the book i really good too, but not really useful for now

If you want to learn computer science "Introduction to the Theory of Computation" of Michael Sipser is exceptional

[wasab]

Get a good book, find some interesting projects and then test your skills in a hackathon. If you want to code proffesionally, get yourself certified with something from oracle. Universities is the traditional approach which I don’t see it as the best way for getting into a field or for learning any skills . 

[straight_stewie]

13 hours ago, Ithanul said:

I you talking to the OP?

Yes.

[KhandakeF]

On 4/27/2018 at 6:35 PM, Ithanul said:

I heard some good things about lynda (never checked it out myself yet)

@TaranLMG can vouch for it.

 

(Already did in his INSANE Premiere Pro tutorial #2(Yes, I have fully watched BOTH tutorials))

[IntMD]

On 27/04/2018 at 10:04 PM, limegorilla said:

Hello folks!

I have finally stopped godlessly recoding my website and have finally woken up and realized I need an education.

So I have the Computer Science Syllabus, but my school does not offer it. Is there any good place to go to learn this stuff? Will a place like https://lynda.com do it?

 

Regards, Liam

If you don't mind paying something, Google 'computer science a level distance learning' and you should have a few choices for online with tutor support etc.

[Coaxialgamer]

Depends what you want to learn. Personally i learnt all my CS stuff on coursera 

[Ithanul]

On 4/28/2018 at 11:45 PM, KhandakeF said:

@TaranLMG can vouch for it.

 

(Already did in his INSANE Premiere Pro tutorial #2(Yes, I have fully watched BOTH tutorials))

I may someday check it out.  But currently I have access to many other sites that are similar, but I don't have to pay a dime to those.

[theninjaseal]

I kinda disagree with the sentiment that online computer science courses aren't taken as seriously...  Shouldn't computer science be one of those things you can most certainly learn online?  I'm taking online CS courses and I really like it, so take those words with a salty morsel at your discretion.

 

OP I think these guys are totally right.  Lynda, Coursera, and general google-fu are all great choices.  There are also some extensive youtube tutorials that may cover what you're after, and of course I want to reaffirm that distance learning is a great option if you can find a reputable online university to enroll in.

[NoOverflow]

On 01/05/2018 at 8:12 AM, theninjaseal said:

I kinda disagree with the sentiment that online computer science courses aren't taken as seriously...  Shouldn't computer science be one of those things you can most certainly learn online?  I'm taking online CS courses and I really like it, so take those words with a salty morsel at your discretion.

 

OP I think these guys are totally right.  Lynda, Coursera, and general google-fu are all great choices.  There are also some extensive youtube tutorials that may cover what you're after, and of course I want to reaffirm that distance learning is a great option if you can find a reputable online university to enroll in.

Of course you can, you also can learn physics or philosophy from online resource (you should always prefer book, but that's another topic), computer science is not different. It's not easier or harder to learn from online ressource.

But it will be way more difficult and you will probably lose a lot of information.
Good luck to understand certain concept like the savitch's theorem from your own

 

Let us be clair, computer science != conding

Anybody can learn (bad) programming easily

Computer science is way different, you need to understand data structure, algorithms, computation theory, compilation, operating system stuff and even design pattern !

[BrownZeus]

As a Computer Science Major, graduating in a few weeks, I will tell you that you DO NOT need a CS education to build a website, or any sort of web development. A lot of CS courses are all the theory that goes into programming. It doesn't translate into your career unless you're going into the research field.

 

If you want to improve your programming skills, and build better software or websites, leverage udemy.com (A great source for anything tbh), and take a course in Algorithms and Data Structures (This way you can build your own Abstract Data Types for whatever you may need in OOP), and on the web development end on YouTube i recommend Academind, I forget the guy's name but he's very informative, explains stuff well, and he also has several premium courses on udemy as well. His courses single handedly helped learn and build my Senior Exit project in 3 weeks (A project I had 15 weeks to do, but that's my own fault).

 

As a CS major I really do regret going to college, I wish went for a coding bootcamp instead.

[Shihab28]

1 hour ago, BrownZeus said:

As a Computer Science Major, graduating in a few weeks, I will tell you that you DO NOT need a CS education to build a website, or any sort of web development. A lot of CS courses are all the theory that goes into programming. It doesn't translate into your career unless you're going into the research field.

 

If you want to improve your programming skills, and build better software or websites, leverage udemy.com (A great source for anything tbh), and take a course in Algorithms and Data Structures (This way you can build your own Abstract Data Types for whatever you may need in OOP), and on the web development end on YouTube i recommend Academind, I forget the guy's name but he's very informative, explains stuff well, and he also has several premium courses on udemy as well. His courses single handedly helped learn and build my Senior Exit project in 3 weeks (A project I had 15 weeks to do, but that's my own fault).

 

As a CS major I really do regret going to college, I wish went for a coding bootcamp instead.

So you suggest that we should give up on college? Really? Dream come true for me, I only have a week till my CAIE AS levels exams, hating the very idea of giving it, let alone being able to study hard for it.

[BrownZeus]

Just now, Shihab28 said:

So you suggest that we should give up on college? Really? Dream come true for me, I only have a week till my CAIE AS levels exams, hating the very idea of giving it, let alone being able to study hard for it.

That's just my opinion. I chose computer science because I wanted to design and make software, websites, etc. Only to find that a CS education, though it helps in my desires, it isn't necessary for what I wanted to do.

Many people I met at my school that are my age (22) are only just starting their CS degrees, and have all cited that they did a Boot Camp first, got jobs as Software developers at age 19 or so, and are currently making upwards of 100K, only reason why they came to complete a degree is cause they placed out of alot of the CS courses with what they knew already from working the field (At my school you can place out of a course, and still get the credits if you take and pass the final without taking the course itself)

 

So advice to OP wasn't to give up on college, if they intend to do something other than Software or Web Development. But if they are wanting to do CS research, definitely go for the degree, cause a lot of CS research has to do with the Theory of Computation and such, and there aren't many (good) online resources for that. 

 

However if OP's desire is to get better at Web development and programming (and judging from the original post, OP already has some experience in that regard), then a CS degree is not necessary at all. If OP can spend a weekend to a max of two weeks to taking udemy courses in whatever language they know (Likely its JS in this regard, maybe Ruby), and learning the frameworks (Like NodeJS, VueJS, etc) they can and will have the skills they're seeking. No degree needed. Again this is my opinion. I'm not afraid to admit I'm a mediocre programmer/"Computer Scientist", and I believe if I went to a coding bootcamp instead of College, I'd be where I want to be. And I'm not saying this because I saw that other people my age are making a lot of money already, I'm saying this cause I saw people my age that already know what they need to know, as well as the fact in regards to my senior project, nothing of what I learned in school applied, which is stupid. Going on job interviews, I saw that nothing of what I learned in school, did not apply. 

 

Friends I made at other schools through various conferences and events, have all shared the same, nothing of what they learned in school has translated to their careers.

 

I had the opportunity to join the Association of Computing Machinery(ACM) (A CS professional organization, similar to IEEE, but for Computer Scientists), and even the Computer Scientists I met through ACM who have been Computer Scientists for 20 years+ have told me that what we learn in school doesn't translate unless you're going into Academia or Research.

[Shihab28]

17 hours ago, BrownZeus said:

That's just my opinion. I chose computer science because I wanted to design and make software, websites, etc. Only to find that a CS education, though it helps in my desires, it isn't necessary for what I wanted to do.

Many people I met at my school that are my age (22) are only just starting their CS degrees, and have all cited that they did a Boot Camp first, got jobs as Software developers at age 19 or so, and are currently making upwards of 100K, only reason why they came to complete a degree is cause they placed out of alot of the CS courses with what they knew already from working the field (At my school you can place out of a course, and still get the credits if you take and pass the final without taking the course itself)

 

So advice to OP wasn't to give up on college, if they intend to do something other than Software or Web Development. But if they are wanting to do CS research, definitely go for the degree, cause a lot of CS research has to do with the Theory of Computation and such, and there aren't many (good) online resources for that. 

 

However if OP's desire is to get better at Web development and programming (and judging from the original post, OP already has some experience in that regard), then a CS degree is not necessary at all. If OP can spend a weekend to a max of two weeks to taking udemy courses in whatever language they know (Likely its JS in this regard, maybe Ruby), and learning the frameworks (Like NodeJS, VueJS, etc) they can and will have the skills they're seeking. No degree needed. Again this is my opinion. I'm not afraid to admit I'm a mediocre programmer/"Computer Scientist", and I believe if I went to a coding bootcamp instead of College, I'd be where I want to be. And I'm not saying this because I saw that other people my age are making a lot of money already, I'm saying this cause I saw people my age that already know what they need to know, as well as the fact in regards to my senior project, nothing of what I learned in school applied, which is stupid. Going on job interviews, I saw that nothing of what I learned in school, did not apply. 

 

Friends I made at other schools through various conferences and events, have all shared the same, nothing of what they learned in school has translated to their careers.

 

I had the opportunity to join the Association of Computing Machinery(ACM) (A CS professional organization, similar to IEEE, but for Computer Scientists), and even the Computer Scientists I met through ACM who have been Computer Scientists for 20 years+ have told me that what we learn in school doesn't translate unless you're going into Academia or Research.

I agree, to be honest I see that the computer science syllabus is more revolving around hardware connected to computers than real computer science, I barely see any real programming in the syllabuses, the most we've done in our school is just text file handling and using functions/modules in python, I find that pretty easy to be honest, and the rest of the entire syllabus is about what the computer architecture is, what is and how does a printer work, and all the stuff a programmer will never be interested in.

Though I have to say, since the first time I watched Iron Man I have always wanted to be like Tony Stark, he's kind of my inspiration, to be able to create and program robots to my will, and use gadgets made by myself, that's what I wanted, now that's pretty close to impossible in the current world, but hopefully Insha-Allah, I can learn electronics bit by bit myself while getting my degree on CSE in the upcoming years. That way I can do both

[BrownZeus]

3 hours ago, Shihab28 said:

I agree, to be honest I see that the computer science syllabus is more revolving around hardware connected to computers than real computer science, I barely see any real programming in the syllabuses, the most we've done in our school is just text file handling and using functions/modules in python, I find that pretty easy to be honest, and the rest of the entire syllabus is about what the computer architecture is, what is and how does a printer work, and all the stuff a programmer will never be interested in.

Though I have to say, since the first time I watched Iron Man I have always wanted to be like Tony Stark, he's kind of my inspiration, to be able to create and program robots to my will, and use gadgets made by myself, that's what I wanted, now that's pretty close to impossible in the current world, but hopefully Insha-Allah, I can learn electronics bit by bit myself while getting my degree on CSE in the upcoming years. That way I can do both

My CS syllabus was mostly just understanding the software architecture. As in how computers work and how compilers work, very little practical education, more theory.