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General Discussion

damirdautovic
damirdautovic
746 Points

General advice needed

I do apologize for the wall of text, I am just in some dire need of advice, I’m an adult in my mid-twenties going to a community college for CS, I plan to graduate and transfer over to a university. But man, oh man do I despise and just utterly hate mathematics. I feel the invention of the mathematical world around us is as a sick joke about someone’s dead relatives A little background, I have never done well in school, I held a pretty low GPA in high school due to a learning disability. This is more because I am partially deaf. With the no child left behind class, I was held to the same standards as everyone else and thus got a pretty easy ride. (Mistake one). I decided to take some time off out of college and travel, I went to Europe and did some cool things through some connections I had at the time. When I returned I decided that I needed to get my crap together and get a degree, I picked CS because I have always been a gamer, and someone who has been around computers since he was 10 years old. I remember the old Dial up systems and I used to mess with those. I’ve also always wanted to learn programming and to learn how to do front end development.

When I returned, I had to take the lowest math, I am now taking Math 150 which is College algebra or Algebra 2 and sadly I am flunking it. My professor is a pretty hard grader and has no cousins of any kind. I do like this style of teaching because it forces me to get out of my old bad habits and actually do some work. Here is the thing, I’m struggling in java like no other, I don’t read the book and I’m just procrastinating to the highest power. I feel as if I’m just wanting a free pass in life and I KNOW this is wrong, please don’t misunderstand me, I despise myself for the way I think and recognize my faults. But it’s not enough to just recognize the issue, I have to do something about it and am not. Do you guys have any advice…. On what I should do.

Tl;dr: went back to college and am sucking at math, failing algebra 2 and am not learning anything in Java due to my own procrastination should I continue with my CS path

2 Answers

As you said, you had it easy in high school, and in college when classes get tough, you are expected to study harder. You aren't going to get a free pass in college.

It sounds like Java is not for you. Even the most veteran programs stay away from Java.

Switch tracks to: http://teamtreehouse.com/library/careers-foundations and take a minute to assess your skills and job needs first.

Also check out: http://www.educationplanner.org/students/career-planning/find-careers/index.shtml

Good luck. Kat

christopher walsh
christopher walsh
10,763 Points

if Im correct that CS stands for computer science, you've chosen a college path that will only get harder from here!

Go through the java lessons on this site. this site is up to date with how people actually learn, while colleges can be rusty and dated in how they teach! as for math, you need a study group or professor who will take the time to help you.

you should really consider that you might not be learning anything because of the college your at. you might have to grind through the community college while learning on the side with this site and other resources.