If you want to be successful, and not just in Computer Science, but in anything, there are three things that you need to do.
Now, if you ask around, there are a lot of other ideas and lists people will have, but this is simple, and easy for you to remember.
The three things are:
- Plan
- Practice
- Ask
- When you need help…
- Be curious…
Let’s look at these closer.
Plan
Any large project requires that you plan. Could you imagine a person going to build a house, without knowing what it would look like before they begin? Or without knowing how much it would cost to build? That would be insane.
Let’s make it something you might relate to better. Image going to play on a sports team, and when you meet with the coach the first time, you ask them about his or her plan for the upcoming game/match/meet/etc and they say “The plan is to win.” How confident would you be in that coach?
Planning is about thinking, “What do I need to do, in order to complete the goal?” As our goals become larger, you will need to have bigger, more elaborate plans.
In this class, we’re going to start with planning tools like flowcharts and pseudocode. As we go further, in the Software Engineering track, you’ll take a class on Software Engineering. We’ll go through more steps and processes to make sure the projects you are responsible for will succeed, no matter the size of the project.
No matter how big or how small, you will want to develop plans. What needs to be done? When does it need to be done? Are there sub-steps that need to be done in any order?
As I’ve helped a lot of students over the years, I can tell you, those who plan, and work on making good plans, always do better on their projects. This is why we cover it so much, and so often.
Practice
Let’s look at a sports analogy again. Take a pro-team that just won their sport’s championship. (It doesn’t matter if it’s football, basketball, soccer, etc.) Now imagine they say “We’re the best, we don’t need to practice anymore,” and go off and cancel all of their team practices for the next year. How well do you think they’ll do?
Practice is often not fun. I get it. But it’s required to get better.
We all suck at everything the first time we do it.
We all suck at everything the first time we do it. The first steps you took were followed by falling down. The first time you went to speak, you probably mispronounced the word, if you even got it out.
But the more you do something, the better you get at it. Whether it’s a sport, or a class work.
Some things will come naturally, and you don’t have to work as hard to be as good as someone else. But you should only look to compete against yourself.
Likewise, everyone has a class/task/skill that they are not as good at. I had a friend who was a Straight A student in highschool. In college, he had a 3.97 GPA, double majoring and graduating in four years, while working part time, and getting married in college. But notice he wasn’t a straight A student… Even he got a B. There’s always something.
So don’t be afraid of working hard in a class. And don’t be afraid of not being perfect. I remember after one class I said, “I’ve never worked so hard for a C in my life.” But I passed it, and so can you.
Ask
There are two parts to ask. Ask when you need help, and ask questions as part of the being curious process.
Needing Help
Everyone gets stuck at some point
If you are having challenges. Don’t worry. Everyone gets stuck at some point and needs a little assistance.
Instead, learn to ask for help. There are people here who want to help you succeed. The school has tutors, and I have office hours that are designated to help my students.
You shouldn’t worry about asking for help, or thinking that someone is going to think less of you. We’ve all be there before, and we know what it’s like to need help.
I still ask for help when I need it. And that’s something that doesn’t come naturally to me, but I’ve learned to do it, and so should you.
Just make sure that you’ve tried to work on the problem first. Because I will tell you my first question is going to be: “What have you done so far?” Why, I want to see how far you’ve gotten, and where you’re stuck.
If you think you’re stuck, imagine that I’ll ask you, “Where do you think you should start?” 99% of the time, you have an idea. So then imagine I ask, “Then what should you do?” By asking that question over and over, I bet you can complete most assignments. And if you can’t then, feel free to come to my office hours. I’d love to see you, there.
Be Curious
Curiosity is one of the foundational pillars for learning.
The second part of asking questions is to be curious. Curiosity is one of the foundational pillars for learning. Ask how this part relates to something else. Ask what the next step in the process will be. Ask what else should I know. Ask what is new and emerging.
Three Things to Know to Be Successful was originally found on Access 2 Learn
