Some advices for CS HL and Math HL.

[cicadad3301.]

Salut everyone!

I'm currently in the MYP (10th grade) and I'm choosing subjects for DP. Here is what I've decided so far:

 

HL:

Computer Science

Math

English B.

 

SL:

Physics

ITGS

Russian A.

 

Do you think these subjects are good for wanting to take computer science in university? Is Math HL too hard? Is CS HL too hard? What kind of advice could you give? What should I do on summer holidays to get a 7/7 on my DP subjects?

 

Arigatou. ^^

 

//I want to be a good programmer.

Edited February 4, 2016 by cicadad3301.

[Vioh]

Salut everyone!

I'm currently in the MYP (10th grade) and I'm choosing subjects for DP. Here is what I've decided so far:

 

HL:

Computer Science

Math

English B.

 

SL:

Physics

ITGS

Russian A.

 

Do you think these subjects are good for wanting to take computer science in university? Is Math HL too hard? Is CS HL too hard? What kind of advice could you give? What should I do on summer holidays to get a 7/7 on my DP subjects?

 

Arigatou. ^^

 

Your subject combination seems quite alright to me. They aren't extremely difficult, but not too easy either. So it'll keep you at a tolerable level of stress, while still preparing you well for university. If I were to change anything, I'd suggest you to take at least English Lang-Lit or English A in order to keep the door open to UK or US universities, without having to do extra English-proficiency test. But otherwise, your subjects look fine.

For the summer holiday, you should borrow/buy the actual IB textbooks that you're going to use in your IB class, and starting reading them from chapter one. This is very useful because the sooner you start reading, the more time you will have later on for other stuff (like IAs, TOK, or the EE). You should start with Maths, CS, or Physics first because these are the subjects that will require lots of practice. Also, even though you're reading on your own, it's important that you take careful notes and actually understand things that you've written down. Otherwise, your study will probably be every ineffective. Anyway, try to have fun

[thecsstudent]

Your subject choices seem good for computer science  I don't think you will be too overwhelmed but you won't be relaxed either. Math HL was only hard in the beginning for me, now in my 2nd year it seems fine if you solve a lot of exercises for each topic you will be fine. And Computer Science HL is fine, I think most people find the programming part difficult if they haven't programmed before, so maybe (if you haven't done so already) you could do some programming over the summer. 

[Vioh]

Definitely a great advice from thecsstudent here. Programming is something that takes lots and lots of practice. In fact, knowing how to program stuff is a huge advantage for university. From several people that I know, those who started programming from high schools usually (but not always) end up as a programmer after uni. But those who didn't, would likely end up working with something else (like system designer, project manager, etc.), simply because they don't feel too confident with their programming skills. So if you want to be a programmer and would like to get the best out of university, I think you should start soonest as possible. Of course, it might be hard in the beginning as it's not always easy to learn something completely new by yourself. I actually tried it during IB, but failed quite miserably. My advice is to start with some rather high-level programming languages that are relatively easy to compile and run. Java might be a good choice. In my university, we use the book "Big Java Late Object", which starts pretty much from the very basic. And it's an excellent book. Send me a pm if you want a pdf copy.