Southampton Computer Science - how can I prepare for the course?

I am starting CS at the University Of Southampton this year - and I was wondering how I can prepare for year 1 of the course. For those who have done the course / are doing the course, what do you recommend me to do to prepare?
Are there any books that I should read? Any specific coding websites? Any material that you used during the course to study? Etc.
Any help would be much appreciated!

Hi there @student.user 😁,
Firstly congratulations in your offer!
I'm Joshua, I'm just about to start year 3 of Computer Science at Southampton, hopefully I can help.
When I was about to join year 1, I was asking very similar questions. I was worried about not doing enough prep before first year but I asked the tutors and they said that you don't need to learn any CS content before first year. The first year of CS is designed to bring everyone up to the same standard of knowledge regardless of their previous studies, especially as some people didn't study CS in A-Levels or their equivalent. Any books and material that you will use during the study will be recommended to you when you start the course. However, if you do want to get a head start, then I would recommend this book: Foundations Of Computer Science, it is one of the recommended reading books for one of your modules (unless things have changed since I was in 1st year). It is very hard to get hold of, but generally any "Foundations of Computer Science" book which speaks about the mathematics behind CS will be applicable (Set theory, linear algebra, functions, automata theory etc). You'll also be learning Python, so if you're comfortable with all the Python basics on w3 schools and can pass their practise exercises then you'll be more than fine in 1st year!.
I would recommend preparing your skills. For many students it takes a while to settle into the university style of studying, it took me a while to figure out what methods & systems worked best for me. Some people learnt how to use Notion, some people prefer using Notepad, some pen & paper. Some people take notes during the lecture, some afterwards. I'd recommend thinking about how you're going to study, and making sure you're ready to hit the ground running! Not just from a CS perspective, but also just generally, here are some tips and resources that might be useful.
I hope this helps! If you have any other questions about CS at southampton or Southampton in general please ask away 😊
Joshua
3rd year CompSci Rep

Thanks a lot for your thorough response!
Regarding the way of taking notes, given the range of options available I was wondering how do you personally take notes and is it effective.
Also, I am buying a laptop for 1st year CS so would a MacBook Air M3 (13 inch) be fine, and would I need 16gb or 8gb for computer science? What laptop do you have anyways?
Thanks for the help!

That's a great question, it took me a while to find the method that worked for me.
At first, I tried to write down everything that they say and what's on the slides whilst they say it on pen and paper, but I couldn't keep up with the writing speed. I tried typing everything on the slides and what they said whilst they say it but I couldn't focus on my typing whilst focussing on the lecture itself. I tried just focussing on the lecture and then writing everything afterwards, which was easier in a way but it took wayyyyyy too much time.
What I found works best for me, is something in between. I have one rough notebook, which during the lecture I write down anything important (not everything) that is said verbally but isn't on the slides, and I have one nice notebook which I write down the important stuff (not everything again) from the slides in my own words + the important stuff from the rough notebook. I learnt that taking notes after the lecture meant I understood the content better, which meant I could make better, more efficient notes. I learnt to try to summarise the content in a way I understood, writing down key words and definitions and important concepts, and not copying 100% of what was on the slides. So by writing down the verbal content during the lecture and then summarising after the lecture, I could both pay attention during the lecture, and use the summarising after the lecture as a revision tool to reinforce what I just learnt by writing it succinctly in my own words.
However, everyone learns and works differently. I've got some friends that can just listen to the content and know it all, some that can type at the speed of sound, some that don't even come to lectures and watch the recordings on 2x speed and can learn enough from that. Also, every lecturer teaches differently, so you do need to adjust how you learn to each lecturer.
About the MacBook, I've answered a very similar question here which might help! Yes a MacBook would be totally be fine, I'd recommend having a larger screen for your room (its nice being able to splitscreen the IDE and Chrome for instance). 8GB will be enough, but if you can get 16GB it won't hurt and it'll certainly mean you won't need to worry about performance. I have a Lenovo IdeaPad 8GB RAM 256GB SSD, which has been perfectly fine so far! I do sometimes have to keep on top of the storage and delete old stuff and watch how much stuff I have open at once. Like I say in the other thread, the department has a lot of PCs on campus which are incredible, so if you do need to use something more powerful they are always there to use.
Happy to help, any other questions feel free to ask them 😊
Joshua
3rd Yr CompSci Rep

Ah thanks for your response again - that's an interesting way of taking notes that I will try haha

You're welcome! If you have any other questions feel free to ask 😊