Blog 1 - Top Apps/Websites That I Found Useful In College
The transition from high school to college was drastic not only academically, but also technologically. As a high school student, I was used to simply working out of my laptop and mainly. However, the minute I stepped foot into college, I saw that world change. Instead of taking math notes on paper, I saw students use tablets and styluses to do the same thing. Not only that but in high school, I was used to just using certain applications to complete my work and had no knowledge of the others. Here are some of my suggestions on apps and websites you should use in college to help you succeed:
1. The Notability note-taking app
The app is one of the best apps out there not only for notetaking but for also writing on PDFs. In terms of notetaking, Notability is great as it provides you with a wide variety of different types of paper (lined, plain, graph, dotted, etc.) so that you can use it for any class. Furthermore, there are a wide variety of pen options and highlighters so that you can make your notes thorough and highlight the most important parts. Best of all, all your notes can be stored in one place and there is no worry about losing your notes and having to carry around a heavy backpack with a ton of notebooks for all your classes.
2. Google Calendar
In my opinion, Google Calendar is a MUST for all college students. College life is so hectic so it’s important to stay organized so that you don’t forget your class timings, club meetings, and much more. By entering all your commitments onto Google Calendar with their corresponding times, you can see your meetings/classes for the day and get reminder notifications on your phone, laptop, or tablet minutes before your scheduled commitment. Google Calendar overall, allowed me to stay on top of all my commitments during my first year and kept me very well organized.
3. GitHub
GitHub is essential to learn how to use, especially for Computer Science majors. GitHub allows you to store your code securely and gives you access to version control if you always upload your updated version of your code to it. GitHub is a great platform to display your work and upload your work onto, especially if you are working on big projects.
Everyone starts as a beginner when learning how to code for the first time. It’s nothing to be ashamed of and while some people may pick up coding faster than others, eventually everyone can learn it. Coding is something that is not something that can be picked up overnight, it requires skill and daily practice to become good and completely understand it. I remember the very first time I learned programming was back when I was in 10th grade in high school. I had signed up for an introductory Java class. At first, I found it frustrating, especially when I was stuck with a lot of errors that I had no idea how to fix. However, after a ton of practice and patience, I became a lot better than what I started as. Here are some of my tips on how to become a better programmer and how to truly understand programming languages well:
1. Learn a small topic about the language each day and master that topic
It’s important to learn the basics of any programming language well as everything builds on top of the basics. Start by learning how to print “Hello World”, then go into learning various data types, how to create variables, etc. However, each step along the way make sure to keep asking yourself whether you truly understand why the code is working the way it is. This ensures you have a solid understanding of the language.
2. PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE
Practice is key to getting better at any programming language. It is ideal to even write a simple program every day to reinforce the skills you’ve learned and to understand how everything fits together. Not only will you get more comfortable with the syntax of the language, but you also will solidify your understanding of the theoretical concepts you are learning.
3. Use online resources to understand concepts you may not understand
There are so many online resources out there to help you solidify your understanding of a certain concept you may not understand. Just simply search the topic you are confused about along with the programming language you are learning and take a look at the results. Personally, as someone more of a visual learner, YouTube videos helped me understand some of the programming concepts as they were more interactive and used images to explain concepts.