Self teaching CS - Maths

Nulty

Hi all,

I am trying to teach myself a Computer science degree from the resources available on the internet and I'm going to buy some books if I need to. I'm absolutely certain that I want to work with computers as a high level programmer.

I have found some great videos on youtube from India and they're giving me an idea of what I need to know.

I'm currently learning about Algorithms and data structures and I'm being bombarded with a lot of maths. I got a B3 in Ordinary level in the LC so I'm not really familiar with many of the apparently basic terms they're using.

My question really is, how far back will I need to go to get an acceptable level of maths knowledge to approach Computer Science comfortably?

These are the topics Wikipedia says can be covered in CS depending on the Institute...

Some schools which place more emphasis on Mathematics will have more required mathematics courses such as: [3]
Linear Algebra
Calculus
Probability and Statistics
Combinatorics, Discrete Mathematics
Differential Equations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor_of_Computer_Science


Here's the syllabus for the Higher level Leaving Cert in Maths.

http://www.mathsireland.com/LCHGeneralNotes/ExamQuestions.htm


How much do you rely on your maths in your job and which parts of the Maths syllabus do/did you find most important or useful in working with and understanding computers and their application?


Am I putting too much emphasis on my lack of Maths knowledge?

stevenmu

Am I putting too much emphasis on my lack of Maths knowledge?

Very probably. Are you planning to try and actually get some kind of CS qualification, or just to teach yourself to be a programmer/developer?

If it's the former then you need the maths, it'll help with a lot of the more theoretical CS concepts (Computability, Formal Development, Logic Systems etc). If it's the latter then you don't really, although since most software uses maths of some type (for e.g. reading figures from a database to produce graphs) it's useful to have a good general grounding in math.

It's worth noting that Computer Science isn't programming or software development, it's the science of computing, and programming is taught as part of that because it's an important tool for Computer Scientists to use. If you just want to be a programmer then just focus on teaching yourself how to program, and as you get the hang of that start spreading out into more Software Engineering related topics.

Nulty

Thanks Stevenmu

I won't be getting any qualification out of it. I'm just trying to teach myself what I would have missed by not doing a CS degree.

As I mentioned, I'm learning about Algorithms and Data Structures at the moment. I get the general gist of what they're talking about but not totally with regard to the notation.

log n, n, n2 etc....in comparison of running times. I'll keep going and hopefully it will work out. Normally the pieces fall into place the further along the syllabus you go so maybe that's the case here.

amen

sure post any questions you have here.

You will prob get an answer

Procasinator

Nulty wrote: »

log n, n, n2 etc....in comparison of running times. I'll keep going and hopefully it will work out. Normally the pieces fall into place the further along the syllabus you go so maybe that's the case here.

You can google around and read enough articles, you'll probably get a grasp on it.

For instance, some gentle introductions:
http://rob-bell.net/2009/06/a-beginners-guide-to-big-o-notation/
http://www.cforcoding.com/2009/07/plain-english-explanation-of-big-o.html

satchmo

Khan Academy is your friend if you want to learn more maths by yourself. Whenever I have a spare 10 minutes I watch another video to brush up on my Calculus, it's fantastic.

Nulty

Thanks for all the replies.

That looks like a brilliant site satchmo. Looking forward to getting stuck into it!

Sticky_Fingers

satchmo wrote: »

Khan Academy is your friend if you want to learn more maths by yourself. Whenever I have a spare 10 minutes I watch another video to brush up on my Calculus, it's fantastic.

+1
It truly is an excellent resource, I've always been good at maths but it is a perishable skill that you lose over time. I was giving grinds to my cousin and was shocked how much I've forgotten of the basics despite using "high level" math every day for work.

fasty

I love Khan Academy!

My favourite maths book is Engineering Mathematics by KA Stroud. It's so approachable. I still use to to remind myself of the maths I did in college.

amen

Engineering Mathematic

a great book