[AndroidLight]

Hi, I've saved up roughly one grand that I'd like to use for personal mentoring in computer science over the summer. I wish to do this as I feel as there's only so much you can do through self studying, I'd like to try out in person mentors (or video chat online if need be) for both the direct interactions with a mentor and the guidance that I could receive from them. I've done an A level in Computing to what I hope will turn out to be an A grade, so I have some decent understanding at the basic level of concepts within Computer Science, I know java at a level good enough to build up from, and study general programming every know and then.

What I need help with however is finding any mentors. I've tried tutorhunt, but the responses have been underwhelming. I'm considering possibly trying to contact people who work in programming-based companies in London and asking them, but I've no real idea as to how to structure our meetings. I've tried looking for courses throughout the summer that I could take, again it's been underwhelming. Aside from finding mentors, the one thign that I stumble upon is really what to tackle in our meetings, as I haven't taken a computer science degree so progression wise I've no real clue as to what I should be covering. I've checked a few uni syllabus', and they tend to contain the same thing, e.g. some practical programming, theory, maths, architechture, and a few other things thrown in. Obviously each of these are massive topics and can be broken down into many a smaller thing, so in that I'm finding it hard to come up with a sort of comprehensive action plan. I know I wish to go for programming theory coupled with practical experience, but what precisely to tackle and under what format I'm not too sure about, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[non]

(Original post by AndroidLight)
Hi, I've saved up roughly one grand that I'd like to use for personal mentoring in computer science over the summer. I wish to do this as I feel as there's only so much you can do through self studying, I'd like to try out in person mentors (or video chat online if need be) for both the direct interactions with a mentor and the guidance that I could receive from them. I've done an A level in Computing to what I hope will turn out to be an A grade, so I have some decent understanding at the basic level of concepts within Computer Science, I know java at a level good enough to build up from, and study general programming every know and then.

What I need help with however is finding any mentors. I've tried tutorhunt, but the responses have been underwhelming. I'm considering possibly trying to contact people who work in programming-based companies in London and asking them, but I've no real idea as to how to structure our meetings. I've tried looking for courses throughout the summer that I could take, again it's been underwhelming. Aside from finding mentors, the one thign that I stumble upon is really what to tackle in our meetings, as I haven't taken a computer science degree so progression wise I've no real clue as to what I should be covering. I've checked a few uni syllabus', and they tend to contain the same thing, e.g. some practical programming, theory, maths, architechture, and a few other things thrown in. Obviously each of these are massive topics and can be broken down into many a smaller thing, so in that I'm finding it hard to come up with a sort of comprehensive action plan. I know I wish to go for programming theory coupled with practical experience, but what precisely to tackle and under what format I'm not too sure about, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

if you don't mind asking, what do you want to get out of this learning, what is the purpose?

[RyanT]

Don't mention how much you've saved up or you'll be cleaned out for all of it.

[AndroidLight]

(Original post by non)
if you don't mind asking, what do you want to get out of this learning, what is the purpose?

For now enough knowledge to work on my own projects, but down the line a decent job in computer science, probably a beginner programming job to start off with. Obviously I'll probably need a degree, but as uni doesn't look likely next year I need some form of an alternative to go with for now.

(Original post by RyanT)
Don't mention how much you've saved up or you'll be cleaned out for all of it.

Hehe thanks, I'll pay for quality but otherwise I am quite a fair bit picky so should be good.

[tamimi]

(Original post by AndroidLight)
For now enough knowledge to work on my own projects, but down the line a decent job in computer science, probably a beginner programming job to start off with. Obviously I'll probably need a degree, but as uni doesn't look likely next year I need some form of an alternative to go with for now.



Hehe thanks, I'll pay for quality but otherwise I am quite a fair bit picky so should be good.

No need to spend anything yet.
99% of computing can be picked up exactly where it belongs - Online.

Not saying teaching is a bad idea - I'm just saying that you shouldn't be washing down your savings for it.
Have you considered picking up a full blown full time course? Which brings me to my other question, what's your level right now, and what exactly do you want to progress into? Computer science is a very broad field, are we talking software programing, web dev, ecommerce...?

Kudos

[AndroidLight]

(Original post by tamimi)
No need to spend anything yet.
99% of computing can be picked up exactly where it belongs - Online.

Not saying teaching is a bad idea - I'm just saying that you shouldn't be washing down your savings for it.
Have you considered picking up a full blown full time course? Which brings me to my other question, what's your level right now, and what exactly do you want to progress into? Computer science is a very broad field, are we talking software programing, web dev, ecommerce...?

Kudos

Hi, thanks for the response.

There's a big problem with online/self-teaching, or with me anyway, is that often you tend to lose motivation, not have good enough direction, not have help on hand and so on. Really there's only so much you can do on your own, at times I definitely do feel I need some external help.

For the full course, yeah, if there are any decent ones around, which I've yet to find. Though these would be shorter courses, as for anything longer I'd go to uni, which I did apply to for CompSci, but my offers were from high ranking with high offers, and truthfully I doubt I've made them. For progression, mostly around software programming/web dev as that's where most of the action is really.

[non]

(Original post by AndroidLight)
Hi, thanks for the response.

There's a big problem with online/self-teaching, or with me anyway, is that often you tend to lose motivation, not have good enough direction, not have help on hand and so on. Really there's only so much you can do on your own, at times I definitely do feel I need some external help.

For the full course, yeah, if there are any decent ones around, which I've yet to find. Though these would be shorter courses, as for anything longer I'd go to uni, which I did apply to for CompSci, but my offers were from high ranking with high offers, and truthfully I doubt I've made them. For progression, mostly around software programming/web dev as that's where most of the action is really.

do you want to work at a large tech company such as google or do mine projects or start a start-up or do frelance web development?

[Vulpes]

What are you aiming for to achieve at the end of all these skype sessions?

Judging from your replies above, you get bored / lose motivation when self-learning the material. I suggest that you set yourself a project (e.g. a CMS / blog if you are going for web development) and work your way towards building one from scratch (reading different tutorials along the way and hopefully picking up good programming practice too). The more projects you do, the more you familiarise yourself with the language. Eventually, you can go back to textbooks, online tutorials on stuff like systems flow chart or normalisation and you will be able to implement the new knowledge into future programming methods.

Thats how I learnt actionscript 3.0 and Java

[tamimi]

(Original post by AndroidLight)
Hi, thanks for the response.

There's a big problem with online/self-teaching, or with me anyway, is that often you tend to lose motivation, not have good enough direction, not have help on hand and so on. Really there's only so much you can do on your own, at times I definitely do feel I need some external help.

For the full course, yeah, if there are any decent ones around, which I've yet to find. Though these would be shorter courses, as for anything longer I'd go to uni, which I did apply to for CompSci, but my offers were from high ranking with high offers, and truthfully I doubt I've made them. For progression, mostly around software programming/web dev as that's where most of the action is really.

Consider clearing - You'd be surprised how many computing courses there are, so some of them are bound to go to clearing.

Some met unis are far less fussy about computing in terms of grades than any other course, so you'll be able to find something, I'm sure.
Plymouth for example are welcoming anyone with 300 points.
http://www1.plymouth.ac.uk/courses/u...eOverview.aspx

So you just keep an eye out. Fair enough if online resources don't do it for you, but blowing your money on tutors is not going to get you much further, particularly if its on Skype.

Also bear in mind that unless you sub for a full on course, you will not get a qualification, and I'm a firm believer that qualifications are vital for employability, particularly in the computing sector, unless you're self-employed then it's just between yourself and your boss.

[AndroidLight]

(Original post by Vulpes)
What are you aiming for to achieve at the end of all these skype sessions?

Judging from your replies above, you get bored / lose motivation when self-learning the material. I suggest that you set yourself a project (e.g. a CMS / blog if you are going for web development) and work your way towards building one from scratch (reading different tutorials along the way and hopefully picking up good programming practice too). The more projects you do, the more you familiarise yourself with the language. Eventually, you can go back to textbooks, online tutorials on stuff like systems flow chart or normalisation and you will be able to implement the new knowledge into future programming methods.

Thats how I learnt actionscript 3.0 and Java

Thanks, I have started with a few projects already. It's not just the motivation, I'm adamant that a mentor would give me a lot more direct, personalised help, tips on way to do things, direction on what to learn and so forth. I'm not heralding it as a ticket to become the next Zuckerberg, but I do believe that if I go through a few mentors and hopefully find some keepers, it will be for the better. A big gripe I had with school/college was my own personal lack of direct involvement with teachers, which meant that whilst always achieving the highest grades, there were times when I wished I could've interacted with teachers on a more individual level. As to your question, just to learn as much as I can and increase my adeptness. Really, I eventually in the longer game want to be able to join a team in an interesting project and not only just keep up with the game engineering wise, but be able to contribute above standard. And in that, anything that can get me there quicker helps.

(Original post by tamimi)
Consider clearing - You'd be surprised how many computing courses there are, so some of them are bound to go to clearing.

Some met unis are far less fussy about computing in terms of grades than any other course, so you'll be able to find something, I'm sure.
Plymouth for example are welcoming anyone with 300 points.
http://www1.plymouth.ac.uk/courses/u...eOverview.aspx

So you just keep an eye out. Fair enough if online resources don't do it for you, but blowing your money on tutors is not going to get you much further, particularly if its on Skype.

Also bear in mind that unless you sub for a full on course, you will not get a qualification, and I'm a firm believer that qualifications are vital for employability, particularly in the computing sector, unless you're self-employed then it's just between yourself and your boss.

Hmm that's a tough one, see I do believe I can get somewhere with a mix of shorter courses, mentors, and my own time as I'd rather immodestly say I'm fairly hard working when need be, but your comment is one that I've wondered on too, would ultimately a uni degree have way way more to learn? I do intend to go to uni, but not a sub-standard one. For me really, it's go to the better/best unis or don't bother, because I've experienced sub-standard education at college over the past two years and I'm not in a rush to repeat. Part of my likelihood over not getting into uni is because I spent a lot of time deliberating on what to do, which was at the detriment of my college subjects and my uni application. I don't mind taking a gap year though, my previous grades below A2 are all at the very highest so hopefully wouldn't be too hard to fix this year, but really going the mentor route is something I wish to do, but I'm more than open to any other non-uni suggestions too.

(Original post by non)
do you want to work at a large tech company such as google or do mine projects or start a start-up or do frelance web development?

Anything really. The bigger the better.

[tamimi]

(Original post by AndroidLight)
Hmm that's a tough one, see I do believe I can get somewhere with a mix of shorter courses, mentors, and my own time as I'd rather immodestly say I'm fairly hard working when need be, but your comment is one that I've wondered on too, would ultimately a uni degree have way way more to learn? I do intend to go to uni, but not a sub-standard one. For me really, it's go to the better/best unis or don't bother, because I've experienced sub-standard education at college over the past two years and I'm not in a rush to repeat. Part of my likelihood over not getting into uni is because I spent a lot of time deliberating on what to do, which was at the detriment of my college subjects and my uni application. I don't mind taking a gap year though, my previous grades below A2 are all at the very highest so hopefully wouldn't be too hard to fix this year, but really going the mentor route is something I wish to do, but I'm more than open to any other non-uni suggestions too.

That's just down to you really. I, personally wouldn't put going to uni at the same level as taking a number of short courses. Even a "Sub standard" one.

Due to lack of positions, and the floods of potential employees, employers are "upping their bars" such that having a degree is almost 80% of the time necessary to get a decent job. Not to mention that what you pick up in a 3 year course in uni equates to a huge number of short courses. And that is why I would rather go to uni over all other options.

[AndroidLight]

(Original post by tamimi)
That's just down to you really. I, personally wouldn't put going to uni at the same level as taking a number of short courses. Even a "Sub standard" one.

Due to lack of positions, and the floods of potential employees, employers are "upping their bars" such that having a degree is almost 80% of the time necessary to get a decent job. Not to mention that what you pick up in a 3 year course in uni equates to a huge number of short courses. And that is why I would rather go to uni over all other options.

Yeah, I know that man, cheers nonetheless. Really made this thread more so for anyone to give any suggestions on what I can do that doesn't include uni, so if anyone does have any suggestions those would be much appreciated.

[tamimi]

(Original post by AndroidLight)
Yeah, I know that man, cheers nonetheless. Really made this thread more so for anyone to give any suggestions on what I can do that doesn't include uni, so if anyone does have any suggestions those would be much appreciated.

Well, if you insist.

Apart from online tutorials, apart from uni, apart from college courses, I'm sure if you look hard enough you will find some "Conference" style lectures on particular subjects in your local area. Assuming that you live in a big-ish city with a good number of potential attendees.

It may be helpful joining as an observer in particular organisations like BCS. They tend to hold frequent lectures and group meetings nationally.

[tooosh]

Just FYI, Leeds, UEA and Liverpool were the best unis in Clearing 2011 for straight CS that I remember. All 3 have good courses and prestige wise, are all good.

[AndroidLight]

(Original post by tamimi)
Well, if you insist.

Apart from online tutorials, apart from uni, apart from college courses, I'm sure if you look hard enough you will find some "Conference" style lectures on particular subjects in your local area. Assuming that you live in a big-ish city with a good number of potential attendees.

It may be helpful joining as an observer in particular organisations like BCS. They tend to hold frequent lectures and group meetings nationally.

Will check them out now. I'm in London so that does definitely help, I know I shouldn't really be asking for help but I've spent a good many hours already, so thought asking for any input wouldn't be too bad an idea.

[mfaxford]

I think finding a mentor is going to be difficult, it sounds like your looking for someone that's very knowledgeable and that want's to help others develop in that field. That pretty much sounds like the description of a Uni Professor and in general they're already mentoring a lot of students.

If you want to try a Uni level course have a look online. I think one of the American Universities (possibly MIT) publish some of their courses online.

As others have said I'd really encourage going to Uni. it's the place to learn more about what's in the field of computer science. If that's not an option you're probably better off deciding on a project and work on that. Get others to look at your code and comment on it. If you want to get into bigger projects it may also be worth looking at version control systems (subversion, git, etc.) and getting into the habbit of using them. An easy way of doing this might be to put your projects into sourceforge or github.

Another option might be to look at some open source projects that interest you and see if there are bugs you can fix (and submit patches for them). This would give experience on a bigger piece of software working with other developers.

[bordercollies10]

(Original post by AndroidLight)
Hi, I've saved up roughly one grand that I'd like to use for personal mentoring in computer science over the summer. I wish to do this as I feel as there's only so much you can do through self studying, I'd like to try out in person mentors (or video chat online if need be) for both the direct interactions with a mentor and the guidance that I could receive from them. I've done an A level in Computing to what I hope will turn out to be an A grade, so I have some decent understanding at the basic level of concepts within Computer Science, I know java at a level good enough to build up from, and study general programming every know and then.

What I need help with however is finding any mentors. I've tried tutorhunt, but the responses have been underwhelming. I'm considering possibly trying to contact people who work in programming-based companies in London and asking them, but I've no real idea as to how to structure our meetings. I've tried looking for courses throughout the summer that I could take, again it's been underwhelming. Aside from finding mentors, the one thign that I stumble upon is really what to tackle in our meetings, as I haven't taken a computer science degree so progression wise I've no real clue as to what I should be covering. I've checked a few uni syllabus', and they tend to contain the same thing, e.g. some practical programming, theory, maths, architechture, and a few other things thrown in. Obviously each of these are massive topics and can be broken down into many a smaller thing, so in that I'm finding it hard to come up with a sort of comprehensive action plan. I know I wish to go for programming theory coupled with practical experience, but what precisely to tackle and under what format I'm not too sure about, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Hi,
I actually offered to teach someone, for free, how to program 3D video games over the summer via Facebook - to no response. My background is in Computer Games Development, but I'm switching to Computer Science (whilst maintaining an underlying passion for educating others). Please, if you have any queries regarding:
*programming
*sorting and searching algorithms
*array data structures
*artificial intelligence
*computer architecture
then I'll answer your questions for free
I won't be available every day of the week, but I am online for about 25% of the week so you should expect a response in a fairly short amount of time!
Good luck

[elliotdavies]

(Original post by mfaxford)
If you want to try a Uni level course have a look online. I think one of the American Universities (possibly MIT) publish some of their courses online.

I'm not sure about MIT, but Harvard definitely do: http://cs50.tv/.

As for the original premise of the thread, I don't think it's going to be worth your while paying for a tutor but if you're set on the idea then you should go for it. Any decent tutor should give you a couple of hours / sessions for free before you commit to any payment, so you can always shop around. (The guy posting above me also seems very friendly.)

You might also try asking around for work experience at software companies - if you can do something useful for them with what you know already then they might be willing to teach you as you go along, and you would undoubtedly pick things up just from being there.

Nevertheless, I'd still advocate a university degree if you're serious about a career in the field; just having the qualifications counts for a lot even compared to practical know-how. And in my experience degrees are what you make of them: you can go through your three or four years without ever speaking to a lecturer or tutor, or you can never leave them alone. If you want lots of contact time, you can make it happen.

[non]

(Original post by elliotdavies)
I'm not sure about MIT, but Harvard definitely do: http://cs50.tv/.

As for the original premise of the thread, I don't think it's going to be worth your while paying for a tutor but if you're set on the idea then you should go for it. Any decent tutor should give you a couple of hours / sessions for free before you commit to any payment, so you can always shop around. (The guy posting above me also seems very friendly.)

You might also try asking around for work experience at software companies - if you can do something useful for them with what you know already then they might be willing to teach you as you go along, and you would undoubtedly pick things up just from being there.

Nevertheless, I'd still advocate a university degree if you're serious about a career in the field; just having the qualifications counts for a lot even compared to practical know-how. And in my experience degrees are what you make of them: you can go through your three or four years without ever speaking to a lecturer or tutor, or you can never leave them alone. If you want lots of contact time, you can make it happen.

would the best degree be computer science or are there other more applied degrees?

[tamimi]

(Original post by non)
would the best degree be computer science or are there other more applied degrees?

Depends what you want to do with your degree/what job you'd like to go into. There are many computing-related courses. "Computer Science" is probably the most median one.
But there are more specific ones such as "Software Engineering" or "Applied Computing" and "System Integrations" etc. There are also courses specific to web development.