Gonna start CS in October at a pretty high ranked university. My math is pretty bad...

Gonna start CS in October at a pretty high ranked university. My math is pretty bad. What do I need to learn by then so I can have an easier time studying?

Other urls found in this thread:

mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/
khanacademy.org/exercisedashboard
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

If you're doing CS at a legitimately good uni, maybe start learning LISP and get used to recursion early. Try implementing matrices in LISP via lists, their arithmetic and useful functions, such as those that give the determinant and inverse of an nxn. This will really reinforce your understanding of what you're dealing with.

It really does depend upon what you mean by your math being bad though.

Concrete Mathematics is a famous text which covers a selection of mathematics that shows up in the study of algorithms. Again, if you struggle with particularly basic math, then you should study that.

graph theory, group theory. those are big ones, not as hard as you would expect. maybe try khan academy and see if they have some videos.

I don't like fat women

How do you even get into a CS program at "a pretty high ranked university" if you are bad at math? What do you consider high ranked? Top 2500?

Theoretically, the better students overall the bigger inequalities in certain matters allowed.

>LISP

LOL.

OP, look at the university's course catalog on-line and CS program requirements. This will tell you what courses you're going to be taking. Contact the student advising office if you can't find them.

Then look at the current syllabus for the courses you'll be taking to see what you'll be learning in each course and which textbooks you're going to use. Different instructors use different textbooks but they try to keep intro courses more or less consistent in terms of material covered.

Buy or pirate the textbooks or equivalent textbooks and start working. You might start with Java or, if your school uses SICP, you might start with Scheme, or it might be something else entirely. My intro courses were in FORTRAN, for example, although that was a while ago.

First of all, don't listen to this retard
Secondly, most failures in good CS programs are on the first year, and are caused by failure in math courses.
If your university treats CS as an engineering degree, you will likely take a Discrete Structures course, one or two calculus courses, and a linear algebra course on the first year.
All are challenging in their own way. You can ace calculus by grinding formulas, but this won't serve you much good in the long period. I suggest you study the proofs and the theory as well, but you should absolutely focus on excercises the most.
In Linear Algebra you must follow every lesson, understand the proofs, and be able to operate on matrix quickly. I suggest you concentrate on the hard theory, understand it well, and then do a lot of boring mechanical excercises before taking the test.
Discrete Structures is a composite course, made of a lot of mixed subjects.

If your math is pretty bad, you should probably work a LOT to make it good before you start school, because once you get there you won't have time to catch up on fundamentals

Start learning python.

You'll do intro courses to discrete maths which are easy as fuck. But I guess that was because I took it as a physicist, in a class full of computer "scientists".

>not banging fatties
fag

etale cohomology

I know all the CS fundamentals. Have taken CS in high school and have done a few "big" projects as a hobby. That's not my problem. All I need is to catch up on math.
top 20. Got almost perfect score in the SAT equivalent exam.

That's the kind of advice I was looking for. Thanks guys. My university is offering a free online course to take before starting CS/Math/Physics. I tried doing that, but it is way too hard for me. I need to strengthen my algebra and pre-calc.

Which subjects should I learn and in what order? I want to have a strong base before I move to the actually complex stuff.

What uni is it btw?

University's don't about people based solely on their mathematical ability.

learn how to program with objects and data structures. learn calculus, discrete math before uni

They do in England
>dat A* maths a level and a decent score in the Maths Admission Test just to get considered for an interview at Oxford for CS.

Stop posting qts, faggot. CS majors don't even get girls.

Multivariable calculus and some entry level linear algebra and discrete math is all you need, you'll take a lot of math but you don't need to know it all before starting.

>thinks his 34 on the act is something impressive
Do you faggots who come on here bragging about these unnamed top schools ever graduate and realize how fucking stupid you looked?

what "pretty high ranked university"?

I attended a top 10 and the 99% SAT/ACT scores didn't prevent certain students from barely comprehending CS 101.

Yeah that's why I got a girl before I applied.
Guys, I'm not stupid or anything. I was just a shithead in high school. Didn't give a fuck about my future and took low level math. Now I want to learn high school stuff by myself so I won't be having such a hard time and fail like your friends. What is so wrong about that?

OP i'll give you a real answer.

Go through "Mathematics for Computer Scientist" on MIT OCW. MAKE SURE you understand mathematical induction if you don't learn anything else this summer.... read the textbook for the class too (it's good).

Make this your only focus for the math and it will prep you very well for CS. Don't get distracted with any other classes/math this is the only one you need and it is GOOD.

>My math is pretty bad.
There are situations where this matters, but there aren't very many.
Just be sure to pay attention is your CS related math classes (Discrete Math, etc).

Otherwise see , they know what's what.

>mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/
is a good starting point. You've got time, go through all of it.
> I know all the CS fundamentals.
The book I'm recommending is intended for complete beginners, but trust me on this, you'll be glad to have gone through it.

Also of note, is right to mock using Lisp.
Lisp /is/ worth learning. Using, not so much.

I will use this thread so I don't have to create another:

>be me
>never really studied math, always had bad grades and lived in the edge of failing math every year

Now I want to make up for that but don't know where to start, I tried some teaching sites like khan academy but if I start from the beginning it is way too simple, if I start a little bit ahead I feel like I am skipping something important that will be missed later on.
My question is: what are the topics (for example algebra as a topic), in order, that I need to learn? Also, any books recommendations on those topics will be much appreciated. Thanks

What level of math do you need to learn to?

Probably just work your way through a textbook for pre-calc.

Yeah, probably pre-calc or even calculus maybe, yes..any recommendations on textbooks? thanks in advance

Everything you should learn starting from how to count

khanacademy.org/exercisedashboard

>being on Veeky Forums
>taking insulting comments seriously

Welcome to Veeky Forums, noob!

>I know all the CS fundamentals. Have taken CS in high school
Take it from me, all you know is how to program a bit. That has nothing to do with CS.

If you want to get ahead in a way that will save your ass, your first actual CS courses will likely be a Discrete Mathematics class and a Data Structures course. Study up on those and know them cold; that's the basis for most job interview questions for programmers fresh out of college.

For bonus points, skim one of the "lighter" comp. arch. books like Tannenbaum's "Structured Computer Organization". Most CSfags completely forget how the computer physically works inside and write incredibly shitty code as a result.

>Which subjects should I learn and in what order?

Go back and grind through your high-school algebra and trig textbooks. If you don't have your algebra skills solid, you will be completely fucked when you hit your calculus and discrete math classes.