<p>As of right now, I have no programming experience whatsoever. But starting tomorrow a friend who took the course last year who is very experienced will teach me intro compsci (semester prerequisite). But some perspectives on the course would help since I kind of signed up for it spontaneously.</p>
<p>Is the material hard? Is it more logic-based or knowledge based? What could I do before tomorrow to better get prepared for programming?</p>
<p>I can say that I’m a decent problem solver and fairly good learner. However, I only signed up for the course because it was math related so I don’t have a strong interest in programming specifically.</p>
<p>To answer your question, it really depends on what Computer Science course you are taking. Since you stated Intro. Comp. Sci., I am going to write this post with the presumption that it is oriented to Comp. Sci. A material.</p>
<p>When I took Comp. Sci. A, it seemed more like a mix of knowledge and logic. The knowledge comes in memorization of terms. The logic comes in understanding how conditionals work and its implementation in programs. I can not fully describe it in words. I think you will understand what I mean when you take the class…</p>
<p>Sorry I wasn’t clear. I’m not even sure what intro is but from what I heard it could be taught in a week or less (probably some Compsci A material). However, people at my school take the AB test so… A mix of knowledge and logic sounds good to me.</p>
<p>From experience, comp sci is mostly logic based I’d say. There are some knowledge based aspects; you will have to know certain classes and methods. But beyond that it’s all about logically figuring out what does what and how you should approach a problem.</p>
<p>I took the ab exam this year. I think that compsci A is definitely more logic based than knowledge based. There are some things you have to know, but a lot of it is boolean algebra and logical flow of things. Compsci AB however, has a lot of things that are knowledge based. There are some more elements that are logic based - such as sorting - but there are some classes that you must know how they work and their functions such as HashMap and TreeMap. If you have little programming experience I wouldn’t recommend taking compsci ab. It would be much more difficult. To do well in AB you need to have a good base of programming experience. However, if you feel like your friend can teach you a lot of things, you might be ready for AB. Throughout the course I recommend having a copy of the Barron’s review book. The book has good review on all concepts and can be used as a teaching aid. </p>
<p>You can also look at this year’s case study which is called GridWorld. Looking at that while learning how to program might be helpful.</p>