Thread: Hi all!

My name is Angie. I recently decided to go back to school to take computer science classes. All this is very very new to me. Currently I am in my first Java programming class (Intro. to Algorithmic Design), however I am feeling a little overwhelmed. Does anyone have any advice/support/encouragement they can give? Such as what is the best way to approach learning this, do I practice typing examples already written in the book to get a feel for writing code or do I just read, read, read and hope I absorb it. I'm at a point now (we are only in Ch. 4) where I can look at the examples written and understand why you need to put certain parts of the code where and what it will do, but when the professor hands out the homework I basically stare blankly at the problem for hours trying to figure out where to begin. He tells us we need to just practice and figure things out on our own, but how do I do that when I don't even know where to begin on some of the problems.

Any advice on how to approach/learn computer science/java things would be greatly appreciated. Hope to eventually get on here more and maybe someday contribute to some post questions.

Hello Angie. What I found to work the best is read alot, and then try the examples after-wards. Do them many times until you can do/understand it without the book/tutorial. Then, try to do it without the book the next day.

practice typing examples already written in the book

And after you get them to work, make a very small change and see what happens.
Its sort of like walking on a path in the dark. If you are lucky enough to stay on the path you don't learn anything. When you step off it, you find out where the edges are.
Don't make such a large change that you get completely lost.