Choosing the right uni... (2 Viewers)

[Laphonso-Ellis]

Yo aero135, you need to brush up on Maths before thinking about taking on compsci and other maths-related courses at uni.

 

[Laphonso-Ellis]

excellent.
will hassle my lecturer(s) until i am confident i can get a HD for the course.

edit: i did shit in 3 unit and didnt take a bridging course and i was able to do many math1131 questions but the exam was just a killer. absolutely a violation to what i have learnt.

How was that even possible?...even the MATH1151 exam was OK.


Mostly based on past papers and lecture notes and other course material.

You're letting your game slip...step it up!!

 

[aero135]

I see... so, that means that IT is crap compared to compsci...
anyone here do compsci w/o or with little maths? (not likely, but possible)
I always wanted to do computing, just didn't realize it would be so heavily based on maths...
any one from maq here that does compsci or IT, can you share your experiences ?

 

[Starcraftmazter]

Laphonso-Ellis - I can confirm that the 1131 exam was really hard

aero135 - I'm surprised your teachers didn't advise you better, as far as maths is concerned.

 

[me121]

computer science at UNSW is not about learning programming languages. (few courses actually teach you programming languages.)

and yeah, game development needs lots of maths..

i don't want to turn you off comp sci though. but if you expect study courses that just teach you C, C++, Java, Haskell, etc.. then you will be mistaken.

take a look at the handbook listing for comp sci and read about its subjects.. http://www.handbook.unsw.edu.au/undergraduate/programs/2008/3978.html

 

[aero135]

me121: thanks for that, but i dont think i can do either game development or compsci, considering the amount of maths required... is IT even worth doing, without maths?

 

[me121]

Relax man, everyones got their own take on whether IT is crap or not. The way comp sci people see IT is that its for the people who cbf to learn the real stuff, while IT workers see themselves as being able to keep a business running with whatever software is available to them (VB .NET, Cisco, Access).

Comp Sci students will concern themselves with finer detailed things. An example is the compsci program in UNSW has an elective called operating systems. From there we learn kernel level stuff like page faults, swap and so forth. The itty bitty things to put it that way. The pros with that is we understand how an operating system works and if we were evil we'd know how to write certain dangerous bugs and hacks. Again only consider if you were interested.

Whether or not you take IT is your choice. I myself have been tempted, but ultimately decided to stick.

EDIT: To add a real life scenario, my friend has recently graduated from UTS with an IT degree, he used to work in my job as an IT assistant, and now works for wesfarmers. Therefore, granted you have the skills and experience, you will still be able to get a job with an IT degree.

good post. i agree.

 

[aero135]

Thanks darkwolfzx... that post was really helpful. I am definitely more interested in compsci, but i guess IT isn't that bad. I'll see how it goes. Thanks to everyone that posted

 

[jonaxiang]

Information Systems - 3979 run by the school of business still needs MATH1131 or MATH1141 and 1231 or 1241 in 1st year.

looks like the same as comp sci, -discrete +some INFS & ACCT

So either way, you need to learn some maths.

-_-. I get confused why its listed Assumed Knowledge in the handbook is 2unit Mathematics as well as the cutoff being listed as 85 in the business faculty handbook and the main unsw courses handbook of 83.25...

 

[dwarven]

ummm hey
can you do both IT and Comp Sci??

 

[goony]

you could theoretically do a double major in comp sci and information systems (IT stuff) for some degrees, but you'd probably be cutting it really close as far as time goes. E.g. at usyd a double major in comp sci and information systems is possible, but with a standard loading for a 3 year degree, you effectively won't be able to take any electives...you'd pretty much be locked into those subjects unless you overload for some semesters.

 

[Slidey]

Chill dude, you say that cuz you hate m$

No, he's right; VB is an absolutely horrible programming language and if you never once think about it again after school you'll be all the better a programmer for it.

 

[me121]

No, he's right; VB is an absolutely horrible programming language and if you never once think about it again after school you'll be all the better a programmer for it.

hmm.. VB was the 1st programming language I have learnt, and personally I don't think it is so bad. Maybe i'll change my mind later when i see java, or haskell, or the like..

its not too hard to learn for a beginning, its easy to make GUI apps for windows, and you can see results straight away. it has an integrated IDE.

if you want to make a small windows application with a GUI and you have never programmed before, then i think Visual Basic is the way to go.

 

[Starcraftmazter]

All of the above is correct, and yet, VB is still the most horrible language I've ever used.

 

[molotov]

Hi aero135. The normal units of math you will do in first year at UNSW or USYD are essentially extensions of the material learnt in the 3-Unit HSC course. I would say, even with year 10 math knowledge, both Math1131 & Math1231 (at unsw) and Math1001/Math1002 & Math1003/Math1004 (usyd) are pretty do-able with the appropriate 2-unit and 3-unit bridging courses. Such bridging courses should cover you for Discrete Math at UNSW as well (I have not done the equivalent at USYD, so I cannot comment on this). You must check whether the bridging courses run parallel to each other – it may not be possible to do both at the same time, at the same institution. The linear algebra portions of the first year math courses contain quite different content to what most 2/3-unit students would have done at school. The major body of material you would be at a disadvantage in is differential and integral calculus. However, your lack of mathematical maturity could also hold you down a bit as well, to begin with. (Note that the courses I have described are most-likely very similar to first year math courses you might encounter at Macquarie uni).
The 'computer science' and 'data structures and algorithms' subjects (at unsw) focus on programming in C, which only requires significant mathematical competence in semester 2 (half-way through the first year).
Talk to the faculties that oversee Comp. Sci. or IT about this stuff. You should get some good answers from them with regard to how you might cope with the maths. Ask for them to explain similarities and differences between the two disciplines as well (ie. comp sci and it).

 

[Starcraftmazter]

For future reference, this is how important mathematics is to computer game design.

 

[Slidey]

Haha.

To be serious, though, graphics programmers are the highest paid jobs in the gaming industry (besides the lead developers sometimes). Why? Because you need to know shitloads of discrete and linear mathematics.

In general, though, programming is pretty maths-intense. Especially on the logic side.

 

[lost1]

I'm interested in doing computer science as well but am struggling to pick the right course (or even the right uni...) but am thinking of doing Computer Science at UNSW.

I'm tossing up between computer science and the new computer science/digital media combined degree course (I think that's what it's called??). I don't want to do the combined degree and find out that I'm no good at multimedia or don't have the interest in it that I hope for...What do you guys reckon would be the better course for me to do?

Also, I've done 4unit maths for HSC and manage to find all the concepts straight-forward but, like many, struggle with those much harder questions so I'm not 'too' worried about UNI maths. But what I'm worried about is that I'm not sure what kind of career I will be going into after graduating...Would doing either of the two courses mentioned allow me to say do programming, multimedia development, or even hardware stuff like networking? OR would it be better to stick to computer science for flexibility (as there are more electives) ??

 

[Starcraftmazter]

I'm interested in doing computer science as well but am struggling to pick the right course (or even the right uni...) but am thinking of doing Computer Science at UNSW.

I'm tossing up between computer science and the new computer science/digital media combined degree course (I think that's what it's called??). I don't want to do the combined degree and find out that I'm no good at multimedia or don't have the interest in it that I hope for...What do you guys reckon would be the better course for me to do?

Also, I've done 4unit maths for HSC and manage to find all the concepts straight-forward but, like many, struggle with those much harder questions so I'm not 'too' worried about UNI maths. But what I'm worried about is that I'm not sure what kind of career I will be going into after graduating...Would doing either of the two courses mentioned allow me to say do programming, multimedia development, or even hardware stuff like networking? OR would it be better to stick to computer science for flexibility (as there are more electives) ??

Networking is one of many specialisations within computer science. Have a look here:
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/undergrad/programs/csspec.html#N13978

CompSci is a great program. I don't know much about digital media to be honest. I remember hearing some negative things about digital media stuff at unsw last semester, something about all the teaching stuff being half-witted apple users who don't even know what a codec is...

Doing a combined degree will limit you significantly in regards to electives, however if digital media is something you like, then you should do it. If you're not sure, you should be able to do digital media courses within compsci anyway, so you can do one or two, and if you like it you can continue to do them and switch program to the combined degree, or if you don't, not much of value was lost. So this is one possibility you should consider.

In regards to maths, you'll probably find it easier after doing ext2 maths.

 

[dwarven]

hey
what is CompSci like?

what do you do?