Statistically, many students drop out as early as their first year of programming studies. This is because the success of learning this profession lies in obtaining theoretical knowledge and its practical application, and students often focus exclusively on theory. This leads them to wonder, “How can I do my programming homework if I have never coded anything?”
As a result, they get low grades, their motivation drops, and they can’t finish their studies. In this article, we’ll examine popular myths related to the study of programming and understand when students need help with their homework.
Situations when students need help with programming homework
Heavy workload and little time
Typically, students have very busy schedules and homework assignments with tight deadlines. It is worth taking into account having more than just one subject, work, and a desire for hobbies and recreation.
All of this leads to the fact that the student simply does not have enough time and energy to cope with everything they have taken on, and they seek help to meet deadlines.
Knowledge gaps
Even one missed lecture can result in a student no longer being able to do practical assignments. Every topic and every programming language has its subtleties, and it is important to pay attention to them. Students who don’t make this encounter difficulties while coding and have to seek expert help.
General confusion
Many people chase after the programming profession as if it was the only way to get a good salary. Having entered the university without understanding what is required of you and only going along with the trending profession, many students simply order ready-made homework from special services.
Competition for grades
At university, students are judged solely on their grades. In the race for high scores, many of them order homework help to be at the top of honors lists. However, no one thinks about the fact that this is unlikely to help them build a successful career.
Myths of studying programming
Studying ends after you’ve completed a course
Learning does not end after you have mastered the language. In addition, learning the basic syntax of the language is not so difficult. It is complicated to learn how to apply it in practice.
Learning never stops: if you stop learning, you will lose the skill after a while.
It is useful to strengthen your knowledge of the material you have learned with practical exercises to prevent this from happening. Just as with foreign languages, long breaks in learning programming can also harm the result.
You have to graduate from a university to become a programmer
You do not have to go to university to become a programmer. The necessary information can be found on the Internet. Online courses, books, forums, thematic sites — all of this will allow you to have a baggage of knowledge comparable to the level of knowledge of university graduates. You don’t even need to leave home.
On the other hand, good teachers will accelerate your understanding of theory and complex concepts, but you don’t have to spend five years in college.
You can simply find a teacher and study with them. Although many employers want to see a graduate on their staff, few will refuse to hire someone without a degree but with knowledge, experience, and a good portfolio.
You must first learn all the syntax
The syntax of a programming language is the rules by which developers write programs. Of course, knowing the syntax allows you to use the full power of the language to solve the problem, but it does not have to be perfect.
The basic constructs of the language are enough to write simple programs. You can always extend your knowledge of the language you are using, if necessary.
As practice shows, years of development do not guarantee that you will know the whole language completely and to the end: programming languages evolve, acquiring new features, the study of which is an interesting activity but not always necessary.
You can learn programming after watching a few lessons
Educational companies and courses deceive when they promise to teach programming in a few hours or days. Of course, everyone learns at their own pace, there are many techniques and effective ways to learn, but it takes much longer to become a programmer. A short lecture or watching a YouTube lesson is not enough.
Becoming a programmer is easy
No matter how much the commercials convince you, learning to program is harder than you think. But it is doable if you really want to become a professional and make money at it, or if you are attracted to computers and creating something new.
Still, programming isn’t about mastering one language. It’s a whole set of skills:
- working with a code repository;
- teamwork;
- decomposing a large task into smaller ones;
- documentation;
- testing;
- coding in a programming language and often in more than one.
It takes time, effort, and persistence to become a professional programmer. Self-discipline and motivation are your main helpers in such matters.
Studying programming takes too long
You will be able to write your first program two or three days after you start learning. Of course, it won’t be of much use, and you won’t be able to make any money from it, but maybe it will solve some of your simplest problems. Obviously, you will not start writing meaningful programs right away, but that time is counted in months, not years.
If you devote a lot of time and effort to programming, you can start earning much sooner than in five years.
It is better to start with complex languages
When you come to the first grade, nobody will think of starting with integrals, and you will not even learn multiplication until the second grade. It’s the same with programming: if you want to stay motivated and get fast results, start with simple languages like Python. Once you have mastered the basics of programming, you will easily move on to more complex technologies and programming languages like C++ or Java.
You need to spend 30 minutes a day to become a programmer
Unfortunately, this is not enough. Even studying for two hours a day, you’ll master only basic programming skills, enough for small programs “for yourself .”But if you want to go beyond the hobby and become a professional developer, you need to immerse yourself in programming.
