Going into compscie/advice please

[dn88]

Hey I plan on taking computer science at Dalhousie in NS. I wasnt great at
math in highschool, but I did better later in my two years of college. Now i need to take pre-cal course before I go in, Im not worried about the math
I know ill understand it if i actually study(which i plan to do alot of). My question is though say if i get an 80% in precal, will i really struggle with all the math in uni. I do plan on doing ALOT of studying before and after classes on anything I do, i think univ is too expensive and theres no way Im letting myself fail or drop out.

second question, should I know how to do some programming before I go in, because I have noooo idea about c, c++,java etc. the reason I do wnat to do is, i love being around computer and technology and new ideas (software,hardawre etc) and it would just feeling amazing being one the guys on the team working on a new software that could be a huge hit, or improving a big companies software. and I just want to be able to even make like a mobile app(iphone etc) just preety easily, just cause I could for phone, even if it woudlnt make money, knowing i made it would feel awesome.

sorry it was so long, but any advice or input helpful

[jbking]

On the first question, it depends a bit on what kind of learning style you have and what courses you take. If you are taking a course where the material is for PhD students, it may well be hard as it should in that case. There is also something to be said for the fact that for some branches of Mathematics, most calculators may not be useful in helping find a solution as I'm not sure how well can calculators do things like integrals or Matrix transforms, to say nothing of working through existenial quantifiers and uniqueness requirements. I did a Pure Math minor when I did my degree so often a calculator wouldn't be useful as for example showing that a limit was true isn't really easy when there aren't the greek letters on a calculator to put in a delta or epsilon, ya know? Gummy's Calculus Essays may be useful for learning more about Calculus if you want some more background.

As I note in the answer to the other question, know how you learn as that will be the key to some of this. Just to give an example, if you look at FizzBuzz it isn't hard to figure out a solution most of the time but I'd guess for some people they may spend hours figuring it out and still end up with a brute force solution to the problem.

[Tony]

Here's the thing; if

dn88 @ Thu Mar 25, 2010 9:44 pm wrote:

I have noooo idea about c, c++,java etc.

but

dn88 @ Thu Mar 25, 2010 9:44 pm wrote:

I just want to be able to even make like a mobile app(iphone etc) just preety easily, just cause I could for phone, even if it woudlnt make money, knowing i made it would feel awesome.

That's an assumption that you are making. Some people certainly enjoy it, others don't. You can't know for sure until you try.

That being said, you should also be aware that Computer Science is more about the science of computing -- algorithms, math, proofs, systems... The most common practical application is software development, but that's not necessary what is actually taught (although the is tight coupling and it's easy to pick up on the practical parts... in fact, it's often expected to pick up the practical yourself).

[dn88]

So I looked into more detail about the course, any of thme maths you guys mentioned was all there and more lol. I cant be the only one that was worried going in am I ?
Either way Im not starting until Janurary so Im goign to finish my cal class first,then pick up some books related to prgraming basics and some more math and see how it goes.
Thanks for the input though