Computer Science Students, Please help

(first year studnet kcl)

- main thing I liked was the programming assignment as spending hours upon hours working together to build something is kind of rewarding. But first year for me was more about building a maths and programming foundation, I'm much more excited for next year where I get to learn some robotics stuff and do a large group project. And 3rd year looks pretty interesting as there's a lot of AI modules.

Worst thing: the databases module is soooo boring.


But really, if you like the subject then you like the subject, it depends on what specific field you wanna go into (security, software eng, ai, robotics,gaming...) and what your alternatives are if you don't do CS.

How hard is the maths in a computer science degree? I'm going into Year 13 (planning to study computer science at uni, maybe at kings). I'm not excelling at maths at the moment but I'm not completely failing. Is the maths really difficult so far?

Well, if you don't like maths you can avoid a lot by picking certain modules.
For me i picked both the maths modules in the first year. The first one formalises a lot of concepts from maths a level as well as going through a lot of further maths topics. The second module (for second half of year) focused on differential equations, more calculus and completely new stuff such as fourier series and laplace and a fourier transforms.

I did CS, maths and physics at alevel. I found the maths straightforward enough, it was more the workload which is similar for most modules. We were meant to read about 50 pages a week of the textbook for that module as well as doing questions, doing a homework and doing lab questions. Keep in mind tho that it is called 'mathematics and computational thinking for engineers'. I think all the engineering students have to take them, but they try and keep to just maths instead of applied, although there are some instances where you will solve a differential equation for an RC circuit for example, i did physics at a level so I understood the background, but even then there are always similar examples in the textbooks and you don't really need to be able to know how the circuit works, just understanding modules. Also, it is called 'computational' as you will also get practice using a software called matlab to model and solve mathematical problems. If you get an A at a level then you should be able to cope, but you are responsible for doing most of the work yourself, there is only so much they can teach you, you have to practice.

But again, you can just not pick these modules. I picked them for 4 reasons:
1) I'm interested in AI and want to understand it deeply.
2) I'm doing the robotics modules in year 2 and maths will help me understand that better.
3) I'm doing the signals and systems module in year 2, which is quite maths-y. (this is also a module that most engineers are forced to do)
5) I did CS at a level but not further maths, so this would have more new content for me, the other modules were still challenging, but it's not like I was worried about failing them cos I did CS a level.