15 Nov 2024 • Calgary, AB
The three best strategies for killing a computer science degree are:
- Talk to someone in each class in the first or second lecture. This will set you up with a group member or study buddy, and by the time you are in your second year you’ll have ten classmates you can talk to and take on the degree with. I know it’s uncomfortable, but the truth is everyone is looking for a buddy in the first week of classes anyway. Do this every single semester.
- Go to class and do the practice problems.
I know this seems obvious, but the people I’ve seen fail classes or drop out of the program all failed to do this – the bare minimum. - Get started early. As soon as you have the required info to do an assignment, start it. You WILL GET STUCK on hard problems and if you can get your brain cooking on a solution early, you will have a much easier time. It will become a background task and you’ll probably figure it out in the shower or in a dream (this has actually happened twice).
Bonus: know when good enough is good enough – sometimes that extra two percent on the grade isn’t worth twice the work. Part of the reason I felt so burned out after first year was that I hadn’t realized this yet.
If you have more good ones, send them my way :)