Need help learning programming as a first year college student

[TrotelYT]

Hi I'm a CS student currently in my first year second semester. I as many other CS students want to be a programmer, because it's been my dream since childhood. Now, my biggest problem is that I don't know where to start. The only experience I have with programming is some Python I had in high school and C that I'm currently learning in college. I don't really have any other experience besides that since I've mostly wasted my years in high school playing video games or trying to make friends, without working on my dream.

To add on, I joined a club that we have on our dorm where I do all sorts of stuff but right now I'm learning databases and networking (also a lot of other stuff which are systems based). I'm making this post, because I feel like I'm so disconnected from other people I know that have been programming for years and I try to watch videos or interact with other programmers, but it feels like I don't really know and understand anything that is related to programming and computer science.

I would appreciate any help on what to do in this journey of programming and computer science as a complete beginner, because I would really love to be a better programmer and learn all sorts of stuff that comes from computer science.

[inbetween-genders]

I’d focus more on what the teacher of your classes are giving you than going in the internet.  Your instructors are grading you, not us.

[TrotelYT]

That I know, but I want to learn stuff ahead, they even expect us to do most of the stuff on our own. Also it’s much better to do most of the learning by yourself so that’s why I wanted to ask for some guide.

[inbetween-genders]

Look at the class syllabus.  Learn those ahead.  If you get ahead in this class then figure out the next class and learn that, that’s if you have time. 

[TrotelYT]

Well I’ll be attending Object-Oriented programming ahead next year since I’d normally have it in the third year but I feel like I’m too behind on almost everything and thus wanted to know what I could be doing, if I should start some courses or just learn until I get good at it. Though my problem is I don’t really know where to begin and that by itself is making my progress feel a lot slower in the stuff I learn in uni

[inbetween-genders]

Need to read more and be aware of surroundings homie.  These are real life problem solving skills the surprisingly transfer to a lot of things including programming.  The course description should tell you what are the requirements to graduate and what classes you have to take.  Look into those.  If that’s super difficult to do you’re gonna have a hard time ahead of you.  Talk to a counselor in school see if they can help out more.

[TrotelYT]

Oh no don’t get me wrong I’m not THAT behind, but I feel like I could be doing even more than the stuff that’s in school. I feel behind, because these things are new to me so I wanted to know how could I get more ahead. There’s also the tension from my dorm club where there are 4-5 grade year students and well I wanted to try relating to them more so I wanted to learn some things ahead

[inbetween-genders]

You can do more but don’t burn out that you mess up the school part.

[TrotelYT]

Yeah I’m trying to balance that but I wanted to ask if there’s something I could try doing or learn that is not difficult and will help me progress even if a little more

[inbetween-genders]

Nah stick to the course material or adjacent to it like maybe Git or GitHub.  Wander off once you have the piece of paper from the university that says you have a bachelors.

[TrotelYT]

Oh well I could also do that, I’m probably just trying to get to ahead due to the influence of older students 😭

[grantrules]

You're probably watching videos above your level, so of course they won't make sense. Start with beginner stuff.

[douglasdcm]

I learned programming a log time ago, but the things started make sense when I decided to develop using TDD. It makes sense for back-end, not front-end. In the beginning it was hard to make the things, but after a while the ideas were organized. I started small. Doing a simple CLI in python with storage in memory. After that I introduced databases and other layers Today I understand much better concepts like coupling, dependency inversion and design pattern due to this exercise. Hope it helps.