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Is computer science hard?

I want to study computer science at uni, but have no prior experience/knowledge with computing/computer science.
I know unis don't require it, but i'm pretty sure there'll be a lot of people who've done computer science/ict a levels & gcse's, and then there's those people who'd taught themselves how to code when they were like 5.
I only recently decided to pursue a career in computer science and i'm worried that i'm too late in the game.
And I'm worried that I won't be able to find people to study with in uni, since i'll just be dragging them down.

I'm doing math,chem and bio A2-levels atm.
How do you find maths? If you can do maths then you can learn to code. It;s the same kind of thought processes and logic.

The unis don;t require it because they will teach you it all. They assume there are going to be people like yourself taking their course.

It is a disgrace that we don't teach school children basic coding skills... It's like not teaching children how to write. :-/

There is also no reason why you can't have a look at some pascal coding beginner tutorials online right now.
(edited 8 years ago)
Reply 2
Yeah, I enjoy maths and Chem over bio. And I've entered myself for fm AS exams also.

I wish I'd known earlier that I wanted to do CS, then I would've taken taken subject more related to it.

I've looked through a CS intro course on coursera, and now I was just about to start learning JavaScript on codecademy, because I've heard some people say that it's a good starting language.
Do you think so too? Or should I start with pascal?


Posted from TSR Mobile
You should definitely start coding now, otherwise you won't be able to make an informed choice of pursuing computer science.
Original post by Soironic
I want to study computer science at uni, but have no prior experience/knowledge with computing/computer science.
I know unis don't require it, but i'm pretty sure there'll be a lot of people who've done computer science/ict a levels & gcse's, and then there's those people who'd taught themselves how to code when they were like 5.
I only recently decided to pursue a career in computer science and i'm worried that i'm too late in the game.
And I'm worried that I won't be able to find people to study with in uni, since i'll just be dragging them down.

I'm doing math,chem and bio A2-levels atm.

ICT GCSE won't prepare you for a degree in computer science. It's not good for anything really. Any skills used in it you should know anyway or are useless(being able to use the absolute basics of very old versions of Excel, Word and Access, being able to use advanced features of very old versions of Powerpoint). I assume A-level is the same.
Obviously computing would be helpful, but there's a reason it's not required.
Original post by taeffa
Yeah, I enjoy maths and Chem over bio. And I've entered myself for fm AS exams also.

I wish I'd known earlier that I wanted to do CS, then I would've taken taken subject more related to it.

I've looked through a CS intro course on coursera, and now I was just about to start learning JavaScript on codecademy, because I've heard some people say that it's a good starting language.
Do you think so too? Or should I start with pascal?


Posted from TSR Mobile

Are you in AS or A2?

I haven't done any Pascal, but JavaScript is a fairly easy language to start with.

Maths and AS further maths is fine for computer science. I think some unis ask for A2 further maths though.
Reply 4
Original post by morgan8002
You should definitely start coding now, otherwise you won't be able to make an informed choice of pursuing computer science.

ICT GCSE won't prepare you for a degree in computer science. It's not good for anything really. Any skills used in it you should know anyway or are useless(being able to use the absolute basics of very old versions of Excel, Word and Access, being able to use advanced features of very old versions of Powerpoint). I assume A-level is the same.
Obviously computing would be helpful, but there's a reason it's not required.

Are you in AS or A2?

I haven't done any Pascal, but JavaScript is a fairly easy language to start with.

Maths and AS further maths is fine for computer science. I think some unis ask for A2 further maths though.


I'm in A2.

Even though I don't know how to code at the moment, it's something that I'm eager to learn, and let me tell you, I can't remember the last time I was eager to learn anything.

It's decided then. I'll be starting with JavaScript today :smile:

I'm aware a few uni's want a full further maths a-level, but since I don't have one I'm fine with settling for other universities that done require it.

Thanks for replying :smile:
Reply 5
already competed it mate
Reply 6
Original post by ubisoft
already competed it mate


So how did you find it?


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by taeffa
So how did you find it?


Posted from TSR Mobile


LOOL, he's trolling
Reply 8
Original post by Princepieman
LOOL, he's trolling


Oh damn.


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by taeffa
Yeah, I enjoy maths and Chem over bio. And I've entered myself for fm AS exams also.

I wish I'd known earlier that I wanted to do CS, then I would've taken taken subject more related to it.

I've looked through a CS intro course on coursera, and now I was just about to start learning JavaScript on codecademy, because I've heard some people say that it's a good starting language.
Do you think so too? Or should I start with pascal?


Posted from TSR Mobile


I'm physics grad that did a bit of coding. We have stuff like Matlab for lazy people who can't code properly. I'm not an expert :tongue:

Any will be good. They say once you know one language you can transition to another fairly easily. An 'if' statement is an 'if' statement in any language.

Java will be fine. You could have a quick look at range fo different languages to see how they compare and how the syntax varies etc. The first time I had a look at any kind of programming was with C++.
(edited 8 years ago)

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