Does anybody else feel like your assignments have nothing to do with what you just learned?
Posted by rarityy2k@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 7 comments
Just making sure because I seriously feel stupid. This is my first semester and it feels like I read a chapter of my course materials that seems simple and intuitive, then suddenly the assignment is asking me to do something that is just not mentioned in the chapter at all. Sometimes it feels like i'm expected to just know something without even being taught what i'm supposed to know. Is/was anybody else's college experience like this?
usefulservant03@reddit
I had that. They wanted us to make a website without ever teaching us web development.
LeeRyman@reddit
Tertiary education is all about demonstrating you can use initiative and reasoned processes to build skills and experience on the first principles and frameworks you're given, and defend your arguments or solutions against the scrutiny of peers.
Read textbooks, manuals, reference guides, be a sponge for knowledge. Then practise breaking problems down, model the data and relationships, abstracting functionality, testing smaller functional parts in isolation and combining them into the final product.
This is not dissimilar to how developers and engineers work in the real world to solve complex problems. Every day we come up against problems and domains which we haven't encountered before. We might have more experience under our belts which can give us gut feels quicker compared to someone starting out, but ultimately we fall back to first principles to solve them.
ShiftPrimeNet@reddit
That gap is basically the assignment. The chapter gives you bricks, then homework asks you to build a wall.
owp4dd1w5a0a@reddit
And the chapter probably didn’t tell you about the cement you’re going to need to glue the bricks together nor the pattern you should lay the bricks in nor the different kinds, sizes, and materials of bricks available and when to choose each. You’re expected to research and discover all that stuff on your own.
aqua_regis@reddit
Can be true, can be false. No way to tell since you didn't show either the course materials, nor the assignment.
I am in no way defending anything in the following paragraph.
It could be, and quite commonly is, a discrepancy in your understanding of the assignment as well. Assignments can refer to previously taught material, which you might not even think about.
In general, assignments test your ability to break down problems into smaller ones that then can be individually solved. Some also test your ability to "think out of the box".
As a beginner/early learner, people quite often have the misconception that "there must be function/method for exactly what I want to do", which is not the case in programming. This can also lead to confusion. People spend more time looking for functions that do what they need instead of trying to solve the problem on their own - your statement could be an indication of that, but it is impossible to tell without knowing the actual assignment.
Surely, you are also expected to do your diligent research, reading documentation, googling, etc.
Giving a quick brief of what the textbook chapter was about and the actual assignment would be necessary to asses your observation/feeling.
Vast_Bad_39@reddit
Yeah you’re fine thats just how it starts.
plastikmissile@reddit
I haven't seen your assignment so I can't comment on your college specifically, but there is a huge jump between high school and college when it comes to study expectations that many people stumble upon. Students used to being spoon fed information fpr 12 years, suddenly find that they are now expected to be proactive and self study, look up things on their own, and not confine themselves to what gets taught in the lecture.