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Computing ITT 2016

  • 24-08-2016 11:38pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 487 ✭✭


    What is this course like and how difficult is it for someone with only basic programming experience


Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 53 ✭✭Volturnus


    I just finished first year and it's pretty easy if you put even the smallest bit of effort in & are interested in what you're learning. I got like 30% attendance in one of my subjects & still a B+ so yeah first year is easy anyway you should have no trouble. I had no programming experience prior. Just make sure you go to the labs.


  • Registered Users Posts: 487 ✭✭Strong Life in Dublin


    Volturnus wrote: »
    I just finished first year and it's pretty easy if you put even the smallest bit of effort in & are interested in what you're learning. I got like 30% attendance in one of my subjects & still a B+ so yeah first year is easy anyway you should have no trouble. I had no programming experience prior. Just make sure you go to the labs.

    Hi Volturnus, thanks for the reply. I've been learning python myself, I just know the very basics like while loops etc. How much have you covered in your programming classes?

    Also how did you find the maths, this is my weakest link


  • Registered Users Posts: 53 ✭✭Volturnus


    Hi Volturnus, thanks for the reply. I've been learning python myself, I just know the very basics like while loops etc. How much have you covered in your programming classes?

    Also how did you find the maths, this is my weakest link

    You only do Java in first year sdev but they start from the very beginning so you shouldn't have a problem once you just pay attention. The Maths isn't hard, like 40% you can get from class tests, he does 12 tests(one every week for 4%) and you count your best 10. You spend like 40mins doing an example of what will be on the test and he'll explain something to you if you don't understand it & then he'll hand you the test for 10mins. Everyone pretty much just learns it in that 40mins. He's always holding repeats as well if you're not happy with what you got that week.


  • Registered Users Posts: 487 ✭✭Strong Life in Dublin


    Volturnus wrote: »
    You only do Java in first year sdev but they start from the very beginning so you shouldn't have a problem once you just pay attention. The Maths isn't hard, like 40% you can get from class tests, he does 12 tests(one every week for 4%) and you count your best 10. You spend like 40mins doing an example of what will be on the test and he'll explain something to you if you don't understand it & then he'll hand you the test for 10mins. Everyone pretty much just learns it in that 40mins. He's always holding repeats as well if you're not happy with what you got that week.

    Thanks for the answer, is there just maths in the 1st semester?


  • Registered Users Posts: 53 ✭✭Volturnus


    Thanks for the answer, is there just maths in the 1st semester?
    Yeah, you just do Discrete Maths 1 & then Statistics in semester 2 which is the same format as Discrete Maths.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 487 ✭✭Strong Life in Dublin


    Volturnus wrote: »
    Yeah, you just do Discrete Maths 1 & then Statistics in semester 2 which is the same format as Discrete Maths.

    Oh cool. I'm excited about entering first year but just nervous I'll mess up or find the work too difficult haha


  • Registered Users Posts: 53 ✭✭Volturnus


    Oh cool. I'm excited about entering first year but just nervous I'll mess up or find the work too difficult haha

    You'll be fine. Last year there was so many people at the beginning that there wasn't even enough seats. There was like 200 & now there is like 100-80. Most of those people just seemed like they weren't interested.


  • Registered Users Posts: 487 ✭✭Strong Life in Dublin


    Volturnus wrote: »
    You'll be fine. Last year there was so many people at the beginning that there wasn't even enough seats. There was like 200 & now there is like 100-80. Most of those people just seemed like they weren't interested.

    Yeah most people don't realise how difficult it is


  • Registered Users Posts: 62 ✭✭DukeAwesome


    I can't speak from experience as I'm starting this course this year too and I'm sure Voltrunus has done more than enough to calm any suspicions you had but just to add:

    Based off talking to friends who are in the course and from tutors who I've talked to about it, they start from scratch. So if you even have the slightest bit of knowledge on the subject, you're already ahead. However, take note that apparently after year 2, there is a noticeable increase in difficulty. So even if year 1 turns out to be complete piss, make sure you're doing work outside of college but I'd say you already know this :3

    And also that the drop out rate is high enough but that's apparently common with in computer courses. Everyone seems to be unaware with how maths heavy the course really is.

    Best of luck anyway


  • Registered Users Posts: 15 CarlG


    I'm going into 1st year of the bsc hons degree, does anyone know when the course usually starts?


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  • Registered Users Posts: 62 ✭✭DukeAwesome


    CarlG wrote: »
    I'm going into 1st year of the bsc hons degree, does anyone know when the course usually starts?

    I think it started mid September last year, like on the 15th. So I'd imagine around that date for us.


  • Registered Users Posts: 15 CarlG


    CarlG wrote: »
    I'm going into 1st year of the bsc hons degree, does anyone know when the course usually starts?

    I think it started mid September last year, like on the 15th. So I'd imagine around that date for us.
    Oh cool, have you received a letter yet about registration?


  • Registered Users Posts: 62 ✭✭DukeAwesome


    CarlG wrote: »
    Oh cool, have you received a letter yet about registration?

    Nope, I'd say they'd be sent out after the round one acceptances closing date, which is tomorrow. So I would hope I'd get it in the next week, at least :3


  • Registered Users Posts: 487 ✭✭Strong Life in Dublin


    CarlG wrote: »
    Oh cool, have you received a letter yet about registration?

    I think they will email or send a letter this week


  • Registered Users Posts: 15 CarlG


    CarlG wrote: »
    Oh cool, have you received a letter yet about registration?

    Nope, I'd say they'd be sent out after the round one acceptances closing date, which is tomorrow. So I would hope I'd get it in the next week, at least :3

    CarlG wrote: »
    Oh cool, have you received a letter yet about registration?

    I think they will email or send a letter this week

    Awesome, is everyone excited about starting the course and do you guys have much experience with programming?


  • Registered Users Posts: 62 ✭✭DukeAwesome


    CarlG wrote: »
    Awesome, is everyone excited about starting the course and do you guys have much experience with programming?

    Super excited :D I did a level 5 computer programming PLC just this year so I have a bit of experience but nothing extreme. I have a basic grasp of C++ and Java when it comes to actual code. A lot of the stuff I learned in the PLC is apparently very similar to the content of the first year of this course, so that's nice to hear I guess :pac:

    Still a lot to learn though, but I'm looking forward to that :D


  • Registered Users Posts: 15 CarlG


    CarlG wrote: »
    Awesome, is everyone excited about starting the course and do you guys have much experience with programming?

    Super excited :D I did a level 5 computer programming PLC just this year so I have a bit of experience but nothing extreme. I have a basic grasp of C++ and Java when it comes to actual code. A lot of the stuff I learned in the PLC is apparently very similar to the content of the first year of this course, so that's nice to hear I guess :pac:

    Still a lot to learn though, but I'm looking forward to that :D
    Ah cool, I'm the same I just completed a PLC programming course so I have some experience with OOP.

    But in saying that my experience is very limited, as we wrote basic programs for assignments.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9 gemin1


    CarlG wrote: »
    Awesome, is everyone excited about starting the course and do you guys have much experience with programming?

    I'm going to be starting this course with a Lvl.5 Computer Networking Cert. I hope it's more or less the same with what I did last year in the PLC because I really enjoyed it :) Do you guys learn C or Java language mainly?


  • Registered Users Posts: 15 CarlG


    gemin1 wrote: »
    CarlG wrote: »
    Awesome, is everyone excited about starting the course and do you guys have much experience with programming?

    I'm going to be starting this course with a Lvl.5 Computer Networking Cert. I hope it's more or less the same with what I did last year in the PLC because I really enjoyed it :) Do you guys learn C or Java language mainly?
    We learned c++ and we also done a bit a Java in our computer architecture module


  • Registered Users Posts: 9 gemin1


    CarlG wrote: »
    We learned c++ and we also done a bit a Java in our computer architecture module

    What do you think is the language we're going to be learning in this college?


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  • Registered Users Posts: 62 ✭✭DukeAwesome


    gemin1 wrote: »
    What do you think is the language we're going to be learning in this college?

    Based off the content of the course shown here , it seems like it will primarily consist of C++ and Java with some HTML.


  • Registered Users Posts: 15 CarlG


    gemin1 wrote: »
    CarlG wrote: »
    We learned c++ and we also done a bit a Java in our computer architecture module

    What do you think is the language we're going to be learning in this college?
    I believe we will be learing Java in 1st and 2nd year. Then I think we will be doing c++ for 3rd and maybe 4th.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9 gemin1


    Alright. Thanks a ton guys :) See yous in September!!


  • Registered Users Posts: 102 ✭✭thedumbone


    Ehm, finished first year computing and you have nothing to worry about even if you don't know what programming is. In 2 months you could learn everything we've covered during first year. But.. if you are still afraid, you can go through java basics course (eg thenewboston on youtube) and you'll be owning everyone. If you find any difficulties with java let me know :)

    you'll also have some HTML, css, plenty of SQL and some assembly


  • Registered Users Posts: 62 ✭✭DukeAwesome


    thedumbone wrote: »
    Ehm, finished first year computing and you have nothing to worry about even if you don't know what programming is. In 2 months you could learn everything we've covered during first year. But.. if you are still afraid, you can go through java basics course (eg thenewboston on youtube) and you'll be owning everyone. If you find any difficulties with java let me know :)

    you'll also have some HTML, css, plenty of SQL and some assembly

    Hey thanks for the info :D Do you know what year it is you can choose to what to specify in? Like software development , IT Management etc?#

    And also, was there any mention of theory in year one?


  • Registered Users Posts: 102 ✭✭thedumbone


    Hey thanks for the info :D Do you know what year it is you can choose to what to specify in? Like software development , IT Management etc?#

    And also, was there any mention of theory in year one?

    in second year, computing and IT management have the same classes for the first year then you make a decision.

    There was a theory, java theory (eg what is a class, signature of method etc) which is fine, OS(Operating system) theory (eg what is stored in ROM, sequence of booting process etc) is boring and not that easy to remember and OOP(object oriented programming) is pretty easy as long as you follow the lectures.


  • Registered Users Posts: 62 ✭✭DukeAwesome


    thedumbone wrote: »
    in second year, computing and IT management have the same classes for the first year then you make a decision.

    There was a theory, java theory (eg what is a class, signature of method etc) which is fine, OS(Operating system) theory (eg what is stored in ROM, sequence of booting process etc) is boring and not that easy to remember and OOP(object oriented programming) is pretty easy as long as you follow the lectures.

    Oh awesome, thanks! I'm actually fond of theory so it's good to hear that there's at least some.

    What was the drop out rate like for your year? Apparently it's meant to be pretty bad.


  • Registered Users Posts: 15 CarlG


    thedumbone wrote: »
    in second year, computing and IT management have the same classes for the first year then you make a decision.

    There was a theory, java theory (eg what is a class, signature of method etc) which is fine, OS(Operating system) theory (eg what is stored in ROM, sequence of booting process etc) is boring and not that easy to remember and OOP(object oriented programming) is pretty easy as long as you follow the lectures.

    Oh awesome, thanks! I'm actually fond of theory so it's good to hear that there's at least some.

    What was the drop out rate like for your year? Apparently it's meant to be pretty bad.
    I think most cs courses have a very high drop out rate, maybe about 20% of the class will drop out by the end of first semester


  • Registered Users Posts: 62 ✭✭DukeAwesome


    20%? Damn.

    Does anyone know anyone who transferred to another college from this course?


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  • Registered Users Posts: 102 ✭✭thedumbone


    Oh awesome, thanks! I'm actually fond of theory so it's good to hear that there's at least some.

    What was the drop out rate like for your year? Apparently it's meant to be pretty bad.

    I have no idea but there was time when 40 students were sitting in a room and few months later there was only 10.


  • Registered Users Posts: 15 CarlG


    thedumbone wrote: »
    Oh awesome, thanks! I'm actually fond of theory so it's good to hear that there's at least some.

    What was the drop out rate like for your year? Apparently it's meant to be pretty bad.

    I have no idea but there was time when 40 students were sitting in a room and few months later there was only 10.
    That's crazy, do you think most people drop out because they fall behind early on


  • Registered Users Posts: 53 ✭✭Volturnus


    thedumbone wrote: »
    I have no idea but there was time when 40 students were sitting in a room and few months later there was only 10.
    That was like that in my class but it was mostly because people just didn't want to go to pointless lectures but at the tests there was a lot more.


  • Registered Users Posts: 62 ✭✭DukeAwesome


    Volturnus wrote: »
    That was like that in my class but it was mostly because people just didn't want to go to pointless lectures but at the tests there was a lot more.

    Which module consisted of the pointless lectures?


  • Registered Users Posts: 53 ✭✭Volturnus


    Which module consisted of the pointless lectures?
    The problem I had with a lot of the lectures were that a lot of them were unbelievably boring. The only lecture that I always went to was sdev & that was because I found it interesting, I also attended most of the Maths(you need to be there to take down notes) lectures & Operating Systems because again it was interesting. But you'll find out yourself that you don't need to attend the majority of the lectures because all they seem to do either talk about what you will do in the labs or stuff you can all learn a day before your exam. I didn't attend one Object Oriented & got a B+ by just revising a few hours before the exam to give you any indication, same with Databases.


  • Registered Users Posts: 62 ✭✭DukeAwesome


    Volturnus wrote: »
    The problem I had with a lot of the lectures were that a lot of them were unbelievably boring. The only lecture that I always went to was sdev & that was because I found it interesting, I also attended most of the Maths(you need to be there to take down notes) lectures & Operating Systems because again it was interesting. But you'll find out yourself that you don't need to attend the majority of the lectures because all they seem to do either talk about what you will do in the labs or stuff you can all learn a day before your exam. I didn't attend one Object Oriented & got a B+ by just revising a few hours before the exam to give you any indication, same with Databases.

    This sounds identical to what happened during my level 5 PLC. Then again, the first year is only level 6, so I doubt there'd be much of a difficulty spike.

    Thanks for the replies man, much appreciated :D


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  • Registered Users Posts: 15 CarlG


    Volturnus wrote: »
    The problem I had with a lot of the lectures were that a lot of them were unbelievably boring. The only lecture that I always went to was sdev & that was because I found it interesting, I also attended most of the Maths(you need to be there to take down notes) lectures & Operating Systems because again it was interesting. But you'll find out yourself that you don't need to attend the majority of the lectures because all they seem to do either talk about what you will do in the labs or stuff you can all learn a day before your exam. I didn't attend one Object Oriented & got a B+ by just revising a few hours before the exam to give you any indication, same with Databases.

    What is the OOP exam like? Do you have to write programs on paper and define some OOP terms, for example define inheritance and Encapsulation.


  • Registered Users Posts: 53 ✭✭Volturnus


    CarlG wrote: »
    What is the OOP exam like? Do you have to write programs on paper and define some OOP terms, for example define inheritance and Encapsulation.
    We did that in the sdev exam we had for semester 2 and had to write about what it seemed like 40 setter & getter methods. In Object Oriented Systems Analysis we just had to do lots of diagrams of how you would design a class using inheritance with the superclass & stuff, very simple once you sit down & learn it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 15 CarlG


    Volturnus wrote: »
    CarlG wrote: »
    What is the OOP exam like? Do you have to write programs on paper and define some OOP terms, for example define inheritance and Encapsulation.
    We did that in the sdev exam we had for semester 2 and had to write about what it seemed like 40 setter & getter methods. In Object Oriented Systems Analysis we just had to do lots of diagrams of how you would design a class using inheritance with the superclass & stuff, very simple once you sit down & learn it.
    Doesn't sound too bad, but I'm not sure what setter & getter methods are haha


  • Registered Users Posts: 11 LesVerts


    Anyone know when we're supposed to pick the option?


  • Registered Users Posts: 53 ✭✭Volturnus


    LesVerts wrote: »
    Anyone know when we're supposed to pick the option?
    At the end of 1st year.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 11 LesVerts


    Volturnus wrote: »
    At the end of 1st year.

    I it not an new thing this year , where you pick at the start from Computing with Software, Computing with IT Management, Computing with Data Analytics or Computing with Languages.

    Thats what it had on the CAO offer.


  • Registered Users Posts: 53 ✭✭Volturnus


    LesVerts wrote: »
    I it not an new thing this year , where you pick at the start from Computing with Software, Computing with IT Management, Computing with Data Analytics or Computing with Languages.

    Thats what it had on the CAO offer.
    Maybe. I'm not too sure about this year, just what I had to do last year.


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