ok, I am a 15 year old sophmore in a rich school. The standards for the school are 3.0+ and I am well below that. I am taking all regular classes. The math I take is geometry. I am currently taking advance c++(2nd semester from intro to c++). I am the 1 out of 3 people in the class that''s a sophmore. But I am the only one that is taking geometry! Is it possible for me to become a game programmer? if so, tell how I can change!!!

oh yeah and I am learning directx at home. Also I am the only one staying after school for help. I have a hard time understanding some of the stuff in c++ class.

In your response to you''re title, yes - look at bill gates. I know I''m probably gonna get flamed for saying that. But, he did drop out of high school, and look at him, he''s the richest man in the world. If you want to change, take your time, don''t rush. As you get better at math/programming, you''ll find that you understand more math/programming easier. Also, study the material. Don''t just learn it, KNOW it. There IS a difference. Finally, have fun. If you''re not having fun then there''s no point in my mind, but that''s my opinion. Hope that helped - Cloxs.

give it up man! just joking. well...it''s a bit early to get into game programming just when u start learning c/c++ programming. just give it some time and learn how to program well first then give game programming a shot then.

i learned C at the same time i was taking calculus in high school. but i wasn''t a good programmer till way after i had already taken calculus 3 and other higher level maths in college. i could do all the basics well and understood everything easily at the beggining when i 1st learned C, but that''s just a small part of programming.

Slow down buddy. Bill Gates is one-in-a-billion. (For the record, he dropped out of Harvard). For one, he is obviously extremely intellegent. Programming skill is/was not what made him billions. It was business skill, the ability to manipulate people, and of course: greed.

For most people, I suggest you work your ass off in school and if you have time, by all means learn to program or whatnot. That way you''ll have a solid backgroud for the future.

Or just take your chances by dropping out of school and hoping to be the next Bill Gates.

Think it over

--
XPirate

IMHO, the fact that your not doing well in school suggests something: perhaps your not as hard a worker as you should be. From experience, I''ve found that having good work ethic is much more important than being extremely smart.

In other words, it''s probably not that your stupid, it''s that your making some bad choices about how you work.

--TheGoop

Good call TheGoop!! Game programming is all a matter of motivation. Look at Carmack: he takes a computer on his honeymoon so he won''t have to stop programming (or so I heard ).

- mallen22@concentric.net
- http://www.cfxweb.net/mxf/

If you take a computer on a honeymoon, it''s not called programming any more, it''s called an obsession.

Thanks ALL! Is there any reccomendations on what courses to take and how I can improve?

I thought school was complete BS. Whatever your grade point is , is almost completely irrelevant to how successful you''ll be or how smart you are, or what kind of work ethic you have.

The thing about school, is it is meaningless. I only made it through high school because my dad would''ve killed me. I got my diploma with about 2.3 average, and 0.5 extra credits. (most people had about 3-6 extra credits) I went to college to learn music, decided it was a waste of time and wound up working a gas station. Wound up working in a gas station...(for the FZ fans)

4 months later, I got my first job developing business applications in VB, and 6 years later, I''m still developing with a startup company and an opportunity to retire (maybe).

Now, to refute thegoop, I''d have to say the fact you stay after class is a sign of good work ethic.

Do what you like, you''ll be surprised what will come of it, and other people will be surprised as well. And don''t listen to people who say ''stay in school'' its a myth of society...

(Saying that it is important to note, that for some profession''s and for some people''s mindsets school is helpful. What these are is well beyond me, but you must make your own choices on the matter. But doing is better than listen to somebody talk about something.)