New CompSys 1st yr Mature Student

ChickenZombie

Hi...

Needless to say I'm delighted to be going to UL this Sept as a 1st year mature student doing Computer Systems.

Just a few questions pls...

Any second years out there got any books to sell cheep-cheep ???
Note I haven't got a book list yet.

Any tips on prep - I've got 3 months to get up to speed with Math - what areas are important ??? My sis is a 2nd level Math teacher, free grinds woohoo. I'm also doing the udacity.com prep thingy which is ace.

I'm going to have to get a new laptop. Any tips ??? Will a standard e500-ish one do just fine??? Should I set it up for dual boot XP / Ubuntu or Win8 / Mint or go for a Mac???

Plus if there are any other tips, please let me know...

Thanks

wnolan1992

Congrats on getting your place.

I'm just finished 2nd year in Games Development, and we share a common first year with CompSys.

On the books side, the only book I bought in first year was Tannenbaum for Comp Org, and to be honest it didn't really help that much. Most of the notes and stuff you'll be getting online, and if you feel the need to do extra reading the library has a fairly decent range. (Just thought I'd throw that in at the start before you go out buying any of the books since they can be fairly expensive)

For a laptop, it really depends on what you want to do with it. I'm using a Compaq Win7 with 3GB RAM and a 2.1Ghz processor and it's never even been close to being tested by college work. The extent of what you'll be doing as college work for the first two years is really just java programming, which isn't that taxing.

As for dual-booting, it's not really necessary. All the PC's in the CSIS building are set up for dual-booting of Win7 and Fedora, so in the event that you do need Linux it's there for you. And you don't really start using stuff on Linux until 2nd year.

Maths... I'll get back to you on this. I've got folders of my notes from first year around here somewhere. Off the top of my head we did a lot of Predicate Logic, Probability, and Graphs.

Things to bone up on... really not much. The course really starts off very basic. Those that have little/no knowledge will get on grand.

That said, if you want something to be getting on with, I would suggest Code Academy, just to get yourself to grips with coding if you're not already. It's not necessary, because the programming modules start off at the most basic of stuff, but knowing basic stuff in Java will be an advantage.

Hope this helps.

ChickenZombie

Thanks WNolan1992 for your very comprehensive and welcoming reply.

If you'd have a suss re: the Math, I'd really really appreciate that as it's been years since I've studied any and I have access to a Math teacher as I've stated. I'll be asking the team @ ul for the same guidance, but I'm very interested in a fellow students take.

My current laptop is a rubbish dell given to my by an aunt when she replaced hers, after my lovely Sony Vaio was stolen in the UK, grrrrr... but it's fine as long as I don't run too much stuff on it; I'm going to install MS Visual Studio this week and see how that goes.

I'll have a look at Code Academy, thanks

As for the first two years being relatively easy, that's not how I operate; it would simply mean I'll have more time to invest in maybe google or MS qualifications / learning more languages, etc... Good to hear that though, it means more opportunity for extras.

Yes, your reply certainly helps... karma heading your way...

If anyone has any other contributions, advice, tips, cheats or dirty gossip, please join the thread

CZ

Stuxnet

I thought the maths started off impossible !! but got easier as the course went on, 32 year old - 2nd yr comp sys student here btw

I left school in 97 in 5th year, so didnt have leaving cert maths ! the hardest thing is there are alot of series and sequences math that still haunted us all through 2nd year

Comp sys isnt a difficult course, but demands alot of work to keep on top of things, first year was very handy looking back, but Im sorry I didnt put in a bigger effort, same in second year, I could of done much better, but personal stuff held me back some what...

I plan to bounce back in third year all guns blazing

I have some books at home, your welcome to them, Ill check it out this evening when I get home ! any questions feel free to ask me,

as for laptop, no need to go mad, all you'll need to run are the usual office apps, and an ide like bluej for beginners programing, and ya if your familiar with dual booting, pop on ubuntu or something similar, and get familiar it, you wont need it in first year, but learning terminal commands and how to navigate Unix system directories will be a massive advantage over other students, and skill to throw down on your cv,
when IT companies come recruiting for interns in your second year, they will love that, my linux skills landed me with a sys admin co-op in a major corporation !

ChickenZombie

Hiya,

Thanks Stuxnet I'll be going guns blazing myself - getting too old to waste any more years, so ta for the tips...

It'll be fun - hope to see you all there in Sept.

CZ