We’re now into the second week of my 4th semester here at this fine instutition, and I’m coming to the realization that I CAN NOT DO THIS. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT IS GOING ON ANYMORE.
Background: I’ve been doing unorganized programming since I can remember. I’ve done lots of things in lots of languages, but here, I’m a Computer Science major (in C++ currently).
And I just realized that I can not do this. No longer do I understand what is being taught to me. I don’t know why. I can understand the basic concept of a lot of things, but as far as actually implementing it… wtf? I am so incredibly lost.
I don’t know what to do! I love doing this, and I can learn a lot of things… on my own… in ways that I’m used to learning. But for some reason, concepts that I understand the basics of are foreign to me.
I JUST DON’T GET IT. I don’t understand my classes anymore. It’s not that it’s “just starting to get challenging,” either. It’s been challenging for a while now, and it’s not really new material. I just don’t know why I don’t get it!
There are lots of things I could be doing that I understand, that I’d also like to learn about, but I really like this. I’m trying really hard to stick to it, but at this rate, I’m going to start falling behind. I know it. I’m trying! VERY HARD.
I don’t know you, so I can’t really say “You can do it.”
But I can say that you have to try. Don’t give up. Unless you have finals tomorrow or something, do something relaxing for yourself. Do whatever special time-wasting or expensive thing that you’ve kept yourself from, and try your best to get your mind off of it. Clear your mind, then come back to your work. Look at it from a different perspective. Get one-on-one help from your teachers if you can.
You just realized this? Did you understand the material up to this point and now it suddenly makes no sense to you? Or have you known for a while subconciously that you didn’t understand and now it’s hit you full force?
Being a self taught programmer myself I can kinda empathize. I took some computer courses years afterwards and realized that I learned programming quite differently than what’s taught in formal classes. And occasionally I look at some code that I’ve written recently and it looks very foreign to me. Usually a day or two will bring me back around and I get on with the task. Perhaps your brain has panicked from stress and it has buried your understanding of programming concepts until the stress is relieved.
Cool off for a few days and do something completely unrelated to your classes (if you possibly can). Then hit the books again and review and see if it comes back to you. If you really don’t understand the material as it’s presented, inform your teacher that you need help. Ask if there’s someone you can buddy up with that can explain it in other terms. But don’t give up. If you’ve taught yourself programming in the past as a hobby, chances are high that you really enjoy it, and you’ll enjoy it more if you can make a living off of it.
Analyst/Programmer here. A lot of the concepts I found difficult whilst learning, became understandable once I had to apply the same concepts. The more programming I do, the more experience and understanding I gain. Stick with it!
Do you have an academic advisor you can talk to about this? Maybe there is some form of extra tutoring that can be arranged? If this isn’t helpful, are there counselors in mental health you can talk to about it?
Another professional coder here. I hit that wall several times in school. Too much stuff too quickly. If you’ve been writing code before, you can handle this. Chill out for a bit - exercise, walk, go get lunch, anything to take your mind off this. Then come back to it. Or get some friends together in a study group, or go talk to the teacher after class. Don’t just sit and stress out over it.
I do recommend you stay with the formal training, though. There’s so much more to the job than just writing a program. Standardized programming techniques make it MUCH easier to change the code later on. Probably 70% of the costs associated with a program over its life are due to maintenance costs - fixing undetected bugs, changing it to do more, do something different, etc. Good technique will minimize that. I’m pulling what’s left of my hair out now over a program that someone wrote. She knew how to use the language, but technique? FEH!
Plus, having that degree will make you much more employable. Would you hire a doctor that learned this stuff on his own?
I whole heartedly endorse what everyone else has stated in this thread.
But speaking as somone who has been exactly in the same predicament as you I would like for you to consider the following advice:
Don’t stay in the class and fail. Drop it and find something else.
For me, it was Chemistry and Calculus classes. It was my first semester in the Paper Science Dept. About two weeks or so into each of these classes, I realized that I had NO IDEA what they were talking about. They would explain it and it made sense when they did, but there was no way I was able to do it myself. I didn’t understand, no matter what the teachers did.
So what did I do?
I continued taking the Chemistry and Calculus classes that semester. I figured I would eventually get it and stuck with it.
The result:
I never got it. I ended up failing both classes that semester and my GPA plummeted as a result. I was even placed on academic probation and not allowed to continue in the Paper Science Dept. Why did all this happen? Because I didn’t know when it was OK to quit. I had the mentallity that quitting was for losers (and certainly didn’t think of myself as a loser) so I just suffered through and failed.
So take a little time to think about what sticking it through will do to you. For me, staying with it for those 2 classes not only drastically effected my GPA, it also affected my self esteem and desire to continue in college. I almost quit college because of that. It may do the same to you as well, but maybe it won’t. Only you know what your situation is. I only know what you posted, so please consider what I say here and make your decision accordingly.
Please, please, please talk to your tutor. This is exactly what they’re there for. They won’t think you’re stupid. They don’t want anyone to fail their classes and will want to help you in any way they can.
It sounds like you’re panicked and that’s perfectly okay. Talking to them will help calm you down and ease your mind. Perhaps you could ask for some one-on-one tutoring sessions or they may give you some ideas as to how you can study in a way that benefits you.
You can pass the class - by your own admission it’s something that you’ve always been good at. This ability hasn’t suddenly disappeared, you just need to work out the best way for you to learn.
I thought I remembered that you were a UVA student. Let’s see, 4th semester CS…the class that’s bothering you is CS 216, isn’t it? I was actually a TA for that a few times, and I can offer you a few hints if you’re interested.
I agree with everyone else. Relax and go see your TA or Professor. Prepare though. Don’t just go in and say “I can’t do this”. Figure out what the problem is. on your next assignment, get as far as you can. When you reach a point where you don’t know where to go, sit down and analyze why. Are you absolutely clueless? Have you reached a fork in the road where you can take two or more paths? Did you put something together that should have worked but didn’t? From this point, you can formulate intelligent questions to ask your prof. this approach will not only give you an answer, but insight.
If I did my surfing correctly, CS216 is a first course in data structures. I had to take a similar course when I majored in computer science. This was one of the weed-em-out courses, we had 40 people the first day, I think there was about 12 of us left at the end of the semester. This is probably your first real introduction to theoretical computer science. You can do it, just hang in there, this course is a ball-buster for everyone.
First of all, in general, many people just hit a wall at some point. Their methods of learning things easily work okay up to a given point and then whap. At this point you need to learn new methods of learning. But once you start getting into adulthood, it really starts to become difficult to learn new methods.
In short: Teach yourself new ways of learning. It isn’t the material, it’s how you learn the material.
Secondly, as an ex-CS prof, it is not at all surprising that a good Data Structures course is your wall. At one place I taught, we shot for a 60% drop rate in that course. There is just an astonishing number of people who think they want to be CS majors but are just not good at it. Even after several layers of filtering, we still had over 400 majors. And of those, maybe 40 should be majors, the rest were clueless about Computer Science. It’s like teaching Differential Equations to people who can’t solve x-1 = 0.
Data Structures is a really cool course, full of neat and interesting things, if Computer Science is for you. There are an immense number of people out there who think they can program but are in fact just totally worthless at it. If they can’t handle Data Structures, they have no business programming for money. Real Programmers spend most of their time fixing the code of the Idiot Programmers. If companies stopped hiring them, software production would skyrocket.
