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You are sweating the small stuff. Concentrate on what it takes to pass the exams and ultimately get the degree. When you get your first job, you'll likely find that it has nothing in common with college exercises or exams. Buckle down and get through it.
My story: At 20, I was a struggling CS student...not particularly struggling with the CS classes, but with all the other required 'culture' classes...that and an inflexible computer lab schedule and an inadequate number of terminals when it was open. That combined with a lack of funds at the time brought my first college try to a halt. I got a pretty good factory job and did that for 10 years.
In the late 90's, I'd put back enough money to go live in a shack on my grandparent's farm and attend the local college, this time as a CIS major. I was a much better student the second time graduating at the top of my class and landing a job before graduation. 20 years on an I'm a co-owner of that company. 
While I don't regret any of my choices, I would advise you to tough it out and get through it, otherwise, you may find yourself on a factory floor. From experience, it's much nicer (and lucrative) getting paid to use your head than your back...just my 2 cents.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
"Hope is contagious"
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enjoyed your post 
«One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.» Salvador Dali
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Thanks Bill!
Coming from a writer that means a lot! Cheers!
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
"Hope is contagious"
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You're forgetting the third possibility, it could be both. 
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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hahaha 
modified 3-Jun-21 21:01pm.
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I think it helps to have Asperger's syndrome. I can focus on my studies in spite of distractions, especially when doing something that requires little thinking. When I was in college, I worked multiple jobs earning money to cover my living and tuition costs, including working in a Xerox room, research assistant, in a candy store assembling the Sunday newspapers, and "private service." (As a member of a private service crew, I and my coworkers would provide service staff for private parties, doing such jobs as walking around with trays of drinks or canapes, setting the table for dinner, serving dinner and cleaning up afterward, tending a small bar and all of the other small jobs required to serve 20 to 50 guests in a private residence.) In addition, I worked as a female graduate student's personal servant and typist in exchange for tutoring in math. All of these jobs were part time and I had to keep a calendar to keep my work hours organized (Thank you DayTimer!! I am still a customer today, even though I am now retired.)
It also takes an organized and efficient way of thinking, rapidly breaking down any problem – academic, personal, just plain living – into small pieces that are quickly solvable. with the wide realm of technologies and the speed of technological innovation in computer science, you need to be able to rapidly learn new skills and paradigms.
Computer science is not for everyone. It is a tough, rapidly changing, demanding discipline that requires constant reading and learning.
See OriginalGriff's reply. There are some good suggestions there.
__________________
Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now.
© 2009, Rex Hammock
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Thanks for your reply
modified 3-Jun-21 21:01pm.
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fyi: I started programming after age 40, and within five years was an about-box credited co-author of a best-selling consumer software program.
First, how do you know you have ADHD ?
Second, your description of your "basic CS course" is so absurd that I think you are making it up.
Other:
Nature speaks the language of mathematics.
In my experience, multi-lingual students have an advantage in learning CS.
Finally, quit making elaborate excuses for your lack of motivation, and/or laziness ... and:
Assess whether you have the aptitude for computer science.
If you have the aptitude, find a course or school where the introductory content is focused on algorithms and programming in one language.
Above all, find something to invest in that challenges you, that motivates you to grow.
Time's a wastin'
«One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.» Salvador Dali
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Quote: Second, your description of your "basic CS course" is so absurd that I think you are making it up.
Yes, I agree, something is fishy about the post.
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CS- degree. My english is bad so my posts can be sometimes easy to misunderstand.
modified 3-Jun-21 21:01pm.
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My first weeks at university were also overwhelming. I simply could not follow courses, in part because I had no good study habits. I even failed my first exam.
This did not stopped me from finishing the 5 year course on time, with fairly decent grades.
It is normal that you feel "dumb", although I doubt that you are. Double down on the effort, pick up good study efforts and evaluate again in a few months. If you come to the conclusion that it is not for you, change. There is no shame in it.
The student loan can be daunting, but again relax. Nobody is going to cut-off your head or put you in prison for failing to pay it. Yes, it is a big deal, but not a life and death kind of thing.
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Thanks for reply, sorry I'm late with it
modified 3-Jun-21 21:01pm.
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Its called studying a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering Math/medicine) aligned subject.
You are meant to read around the subjects, its not like being at school.
Being at University/College is not meant to be easy (or least for STEM subjects) - its meant to stretch you to your limits (and beyond)!
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i think that something is wrong with your country's educational system or maybe with that particular school you're in, if it's a private university.
they are jumping into many technologies at once and too little programming i guess.
technologies will change, but the way of thinking about solving problems doesn't change so fast.
this: Swing, JavaFX, UML... seems to me like chaos.
i believe that learning should be like an exponential curve. at first it's hard to grasp the basics but you need a very strong foundation. when you take the right path then you excel, letter.
for a person that has infinite amount of memory and brain power maybe their approach is good, throwing at you dozen of technologies at a time, but that way of learning has only linear progression. as i said if you have infinite memory...
i don't want to discourage you but i think you should look out for the option to switch the university.
i'm not saying to drop CS, but tho consider a different uni that has at least 30+ years of CS educational experience.
i don't know what you should do about your college money loan/supply. that's another and very upsetting story and maybe your entire generation is in the same shoes as you. maybe everybody is as confused as you with that (i believe) experimental educational system.
apart from mathematics, natural science, hardware and other stuff that you should learn at a CS university, the CS path should be (IMHO): algorithms, imperative language A, data structures, declarative language B, OO language C, functional language D... then go back to data structures in a language E that can do as much of A, B, C and D as possible.
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First, it is no big deal if you take an incomplete in the course, and continue again a second time.
I would still try to stay in the course, doing the work, etc. [After taking the incomplete]
As you said, you might be more kinesthetic and less visual as a learner (Meaning you learn through doing more than imagining/visualizing). It's not good or bad, per se.
A lecture does NOT TEACH a subject, it FRAMES a subject!
A good lecture on Algorithms + Data Structures doesn't teach you ALL of those things. It FRAMES why they are important. That you match the two of them based on your memory, performance and data sizing requirements. If you have 10 Terabytes of information to search through. I would guess an in-memory array that you bubble sort is out of the question!
My recommendation is (and always will be).
1) Read the material BEFORE the lecture. On a blank page, write down EVERY NEW Word/concept (do not look it up, just acknowledge this is new to you)
2) Do any EXAMPLE Problems in the text. Actually do them. Or at the least, rewrite them in their entirety (This familiarizes you to the patterns, and the language/terminoloty)
3) Set it aside for a bit... (Do this the night before the lecture)
4) Watch/Attend the lecture. [But read your list of new Terms Before you do, your brain will fill them in as you watch]
5) After watching the lecture, re-work by yourself ANY examples the lecturer used. Then redo the examples from the book. Review the terms, start checking off the ones you feel comfortable with.
6) Re-Read the book for this lecture.
7) Do the homework. Compare it to the examples. Review the terms, again...
Wash, Rinse, Repeat.
Do this for Math/Science classes. I've seen kids go from literally failing course, who went back to the beginning of the course, and APPLIED this approach end up getting STEM degrees or literally crushing the classes.
You need DECOMPRESSION time, and extra review time. I will guess that your confidence is getting crushed. Then you are flailing on the tests, never quite certain what they are driving at.
For most people, confidence is EITHER going to come from repetition or memory (Just knowing the answer is right). Your #1 job on your test is to manage your confidence.
Before your test, review ALL of those sheets with the terms on them. And this will help. You will instantly realize how far you have come. And at the same time, you will know what you know and know what you don't know. (I tend to calculate risks of TRYING to learn stuff I missed before an exam. I am willing to give up 3-5% of an exam in order to not feel like I was cramming, and risk a 10% failure induced by cramming and the damage to my confidence).
Finally, again, there is NOTHING wrong with having to re-take a class, especially if you are TRULY LEARNING the BASICS and learning them well. As a potential Employer for someone like you, I would LOVE to hear how you struggled, changed your approach, took the class a second time, since you realized how important it was, and then built from there. [To me, that makes you someone willing to question a design, throw away the WRONG design, and work hard to DELIVER the RIGHT design. A VERY Valuable Experience/Skill]
HTH
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Windows 10 does have some built in screen recording capability, and it's probably already installed... Type XBox into search and it should bring up the "XBox Game Bar".
It should allow you to record your lectures, and stop and resume them at your leisure. If that helps any.
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Well if your university is anything like mine was (which was notorious for being the most encyclopedic in the region), then what you're experiencing is normal.
The first 4 semesters are supposed to give you an existential crisis. They are supposed to make you feel small in a larger world. Unlike high school, the university is meant to be a humiliating experience at first. Towards the end you crave knowledge and experience, not good grades. Passing grades give you a smile of victory, but high marks land you in the zone and you feel like Pele after winning the world cup.
To graduate from the university is to come into the world, again, alone, but with the knowledge you have resources you can wield to solve a problem.
I was trained to be a Computer Engineer so our scope may be slightly different (Yes electronics is second nature and the Riemann sphere still gets me dizzy). Just remember that this step is just the first of many endurance races, but the most formative.
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Yup. Welcome to college. It doesn't really get any easier. If you were used to coasting through high school, get over it.
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I would say that their teaching style does not work for you rather than CS is not for beginners.
Different people learn things in different ways. Some learn best by books, some learn best by lectures, others learn best by simply diving into the deep end and having a go. Find a learning style that works for you.
That said I would suspect that many people who do CS typically have years of technical experience behind them (from mucking around with computers after school, to being treated as the families IT support person), thus making CS more the piece of paper solidifying their knowledge than actual learning, but even if you don't have that technical background it really just comes down to approaching computing with the right mindset.
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My son is attempting to do a University course with a lot of CS subjects this year at Monash University. He is really struggling. He was a 94 ATAR student last year - at a good school and is pretty smart.
A lot of the observations he makes are similar to yours. My observation is that the online format does not translate well to University. At least the way Monash seems to be doing it. The large lecture theatre size classes do not lend themselves to deep questions, and the video sessions appear to be by themselves of low value. Along with that - lack of human contact is debilitating for some peoples motivation.
Everyone says that first year University is hard, because it's a mental shift from High School - but I think this year is particularly hard because of COVID and many organisations being caught with their pants down.
Fingers crossed, if you can stick it out - things will improve for next year.
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Sorry for late reply. I like the online format because I like to learn by myself, but what I think is hard is that everything is going to fast and definitly is not meant for a beginner. I feel like it's impossible to make a program in Java Swing or Java FX in object oriented manner after learning OOP one week ago... Well I'm lucky I learn what it is before I started my college courses. I feel sorry for total beginners though... It takes time to understand those concepts and it takes more time to practice them. Like where is time to practice, when I also have to study for exams in PHP and databases and propositional logic and make UML diagrams too... I don't even see my family anymore, because I have to keep up to the material and study seven days a week with some pauses to whine here on the forum  . I didn't even have time to give you all my replies.
modified 3-Jun-21 21:01pm.
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My background is in science, though I did sit an exam in Java (writing code with pen and paper) and I code a little bit as part of my work (Java, JS and some PHP mostly) so I can't speak about CS specifically and so what I write might or might not be relevant!
First of all: have you actually seen any past or mock exam questions? Maybe you are overthinking it, lecturers generally focus exams on a core number of themes as they don't expect students to know everything. Often the same recycled questions are dressed differently. Doing a degree is just the beginning, the real skill comes later when you put it into practice for a few years. Lecturers know this and usually throw a lot of stuff at you but test mainly the core plus their own pet favourite topics (of course they make it extra hard to earn a distinction though). They often also place emphasis during lectures on what they aim to examine. It pays to be 'in-tune' with the lecturers so attending all classes certainly helps. Exam Qs often look harder than they really are. That said, to get a high grade requires more than the minimum asked for. Try to understand what they are really looking for and focus your efforts accordingly.
Second point. When I was learning to code I dabbled with several different languages, which was confusing at the time but paid off later. I went from struggling with the material, to coding but getting frustrated with bugs and other issues, to simply enjoying coding as it became more effortless with practice. Something just clicked one day, but only after many days of frustrating work. 'Rome wasn't built in a day', as they say.
Third point. Once you learn one language thoroughly, others become 10 times easier. Perhaps rather than just learning a bit of each, focus on one you feel most comfortable with first then the others should become easier. You can't learn several until you have learned one. Reading books helps, but in the end writing code to solve your own problems is probably the best way to learn. Online hands-on coding tutorials can be very useful.
Finally, if it really seems too tough then remember you can get a coding job without a CS degree, you just need to be confident with the required skills and tools (and highly skilled in interview techniques).
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Thank you for your reply. As I already told, I took a week of and was programming so I couldn't read all the posts and answer too them.
I feel like I would like to only focus on learning java but I don't really have a choice and have to learn PHP too... and worst with data bases...  But I just ignore it for the moment, maybe I will be forced to retake the course later.
modified 3-Jun-21 21:01pm.
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Most thinks at the University level require a passion. Some people are naturally gifted. I was not one of them. In order to be "successful" in the university experience you kind of have to have the mindset of "what's in this for me"? What I am going to do with this and how can I apply it to achieve the goals the Lord Jesus has set for me. Sadly, I wondered though college without focusing on Christ but I did have goals. I started in Industrial Electronics and Electrical Engineering and had trouble. I did okay for a while but I could see how to apply the topics to anything useful in my life. I felt the Lord possibly drawing me to music and I tried that for a while but I was too lazy and didn't seek the Lord enough. I found music seemed just as hard as Electrical Engineering (take Aural Perception for Example and how fast those kiddos rattle out their major/minor and other scales), but that I wasn't ready to put in the work at that stage of my life. I eventually got my BS in Computer Science because it came easier for me than the other diciplines.
Why did CS come easier for me? Because I already liked Math and Music and I already had programming as a hobby. That was enough to get me through some of of the material with less effort. I wanted to create my own code and release it to the public. I had a "passion" for programming and it didn't conflict too much with what the professors were teaching. When you find your "passion" and the "why" the how will come. I haven't completed an Ironman yet, but if you have the time or money you might consider training for an ultra-endurance event some suffer. Take some challenge that seems impossible like an Ironman and go for it with some strong committed Christian friends that will hold you accountable. If I keep doing it and don't quit, you will be surprised at the barriers you overcome. As I said, I have yet to finish an Ironman, but I have overcome some hurdles that I thought very well might stop me in the beginning.
The point is, you have to find a passion. Maybe you want to code Video Games and put them on GitHub this Summer. You can get started with SVG, HTML and WebAudio:
SVG.js v3.0 | Other Elements
Personally, I don't like Java or PhP. I feel both languages have "issues" but they are probably good beginner languages since they don't have a lot of "arbitrary" barriers. My favorite language is Haskell but I/O is a royal pain in Haskell. If you're okay with Java. Maybe you sound augment your learning with C# and XNA over the summer. Maybe your professor will allow you to use C# (or a language of your choice) in some of the classes. Getting to pick your own language makes the CS classes much more fun.
A professor once told me that a numerical analysis class that we could use any language we wanted (that worked on our server) for our assignments. Then he said he didn't like LISP because he thought it was unintuitive. To be a smart aleck, I wrote one of my programs in LISP. I had a hard time with it but I didn't have to deal with floating point error and I had arbitrarily long rational numbers. I had a hard time getting that assignment to work but I got an A and most importantly it was FUN!!!
Find your passion!!! Try to find ways to make CS relevant to you and try to learn the virtue of commitment early in life while you are young. I certainly hope you are able to graduate in 4 years but I think it took me 8 years to graduate from college and 45 years or so to learn the art of commitment.
Pray every day for the Lord Jesus to give you guidance. I'm not saying you need to jump school and go be a minister, but you and honor the Lord Jesus as a programmer, but be humble and give *him* the glory.
I need to go. I have a day job...
Sorry if I rambled and didn't proofread.
May The Lord Bless You,
Shawn
EDIT: I don't care for JavaScript either but it's a decent way to get started with Video games if you combine it with SVG and WebAudio. I think the *best* way to write Video games "might" be C# with XNA or C# with Unity but I haven't personally tried it. Don't even go there with DirectX right now. DirectX is a pain... I would probably save DirectX for when you are highly comfortable with C++, multithreaded programming and GPUs. Sorry if there are errors. I really need to get to my day job. Would love to talk with you.
modified 10-Nov-20 9:17am.
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