Advice For Computer Science Student

Q: I am a Computer Science student attending classes at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. I have been in college for a few years now, but I have some questions for you. I am really struggling with my programming classes. Its hard to describe...I can understand small scale programs, but when it comes to designing an application like itunes(just as an example) I'm lost. If someone came up to me and said I want you to design your own mp3 player, I would be completly lost. I guess I just get overwhelmed with the steps it takes to make a huge program. Now onto my questions: 1) How can I get better at programming? Are there any real good books out there that i can learn from? 2) Is there anyway to understand the syntax better? 3) What languages should I learn? So far, I have had a C, C++, and part of a JAVA class. If you could help me out I would really appreciate it!

A: -Google for "refactoring" and "test driven development". They are among the leading edge design techniques; they turn an inability to predict the "big picture" from a liability into an advantage. -There's not enough information to go on here, but doing design engineering involves a core talent that some people are born with and others are not. For your own benefit and career planning you're going to have to at some point determine which of these categories you are in. If you've plunged into several design projects and not come up with anything that works, that is not a good sign. If you've never held a job where someone paid you to design something and was happy with the results, then you do not know yet whether design engineering is for you -- although your talents may be perfectly good for other types of engineering such as QA or test. Not to be too negative. Some of the other replies have some more positive advice than mine -Search the web for: PSP Carnegie Mellon

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