11th Grade activities most useful to career success

[Tony]

Just in case someone has missed this XKCD comic

[wtd]

I can vouch for this. In the late 90's I took an introductory programming class that used C++. 15 weeks of C++.

I took a snowed-in weekend and installed irb. I learned more about programming from that weekend than 15 weeks of classes taught me.

For what it's worth, the next weekend I installed the O'Caml tools andtook on functional programming after hitting a mental wall with Haskell. At the end of the weekend, I "got" functional programming.

Success is empowering.

[Insectoid]

I actually did this. I was really far ahead in my programing course, so my teacher said to learn Perl. So, that weekend I messed with Perl. I learned far more Perl in that time than Java in an equal amount of class time.

[chili5]

I disagree for the most part, I've learned quite a bit of programming in my grade 11 class. I would have never been able to teach myself any of the things that help myself in contests.

I've learned more from my grade 11 instructor than anything I've read on my own.

I still work at learning on my own, but I learn more in my grade 11 class.

[Insectoid]

If I didn't do things on my own, I wouldn't get even 1 question done in the contests. The vast majority of my CS knowledge comes from learning on my own time.

EDIT: Also, in the real world, you may have to learn a new language. Nobody is going to teach it to you; it is done on your own time.

[dc116]

Huh? I don't really get it.

[syntax_error]

Its not meant for all types of people.

"Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)."