Nomad, interesting points. I was much the same way. I found that I could coast and get B-''s or work my ass off and get B+''s and A-''s, so I chose to coast. I do love computer science though and the math that is associated with it, although some of it is over my head. I would say that I have a really poor work ethic except when it comes to CS.

I did work my ass off in high school though because I wanted to go to a good college so that I didn''t end up a farmer like my Dad and everyone else in that little town. No disrespect to my Dad, but I just didn''t want his job.

Ok, well I'm screwed. I am never going to get into any honors classes. So what do I do??


Edited by - felisandria on 2/24/00 4:08:05 PM

Wow. I admire all of you 15 and younger. I first tried VB i think when i was about 13. I couldnt understand a thing! It kinda freaked me out for a few years, figured i was stupid or something. I took ''high school'' equivelent in the UK. If i converted my grades my GPA would be BELOW 2.2! (6 B''s, 5 C''s, and too many F''s)
I just got back into programming about a year ago. I did Pascal until i got Borland C 4 free on a CD. Then i did that for a little. Ive havent got past the simple app stage yet. Mainly because i change languages every 6 months! Hey, if you can get into a programming class DO IT! Im in college now and i cant get into a C cource until i finish Calculus. You got about 4 years on me at the moment, if you keep going who knows how amazing youll be at my age??

PEACE
GAZZ

I was kicked out of every honors program they ever tried to put me in. Noone to this day for any job interview has ever asked whether I got a good grade point average, or whether I was in the honors program.

I don''t seem to have much trouble getting a job.

Now, if you want a career as a student, which many people seem to enjoy, than you need good grades, otherwise, just go out and DO IT. Whatever IT is. Experience is worth ten times whatever you get in school.

And on top of it all, I never learned anything in school, I couldn''t have learned on my own if I needed to anyway. People say you need all these math skills to write programs and I call BS on that. That''s like saying you need to understand how to play scales on a piano to write music.

Obviously from the posts on this topic, most people hate/hated school. I myself hated school and had average grades until I went to college.

One of the biggest things I found school can give a person is options.

What I mean by this is, by learning things on your own, a person will typically learn topics that seem interesting at the time. However, in school, you will definately learn things that you could care less about now.

For example: Let''s say you are a dedicated game programmer wannabe (I know I am), and you spend your days in class and your nights writing games (or learning about writing games). During class, you would learn about boring (non-game related) topics such as Oracle Database Connectivity, Host based programming (can anyone say VMS), etc...

You might say to yourself, well that blew. Let''s get onto 3D graphics and do something useful.

A few years later, you find yourself finished school and entering the real world. The world that sucks you dry with car payments, rent/mortgage, groceries, insurance, blah, blah, blah. After a short period of time, you quickly realize that none of the big game companies are calling you for a job.

Then it hits you like a brick in the face. While your passion may be programming games (which can be done on your spare time), there are a huge number of jobs for business programmers. So you take a job, gain some business experience (and teamwork experience), and now you can afford to live (and buy all the toys and tools you need to write your next game).

Sorry to be so long winded with this message. My point is, if you stay in school, you leave options available that might not be possible otherwise. And when it comes down to it. Would you rather be writing business apps for $50,000/yr or delivering pizza for minimum wage.

Don''t let this message turn you off game programming. I write business apps for a living and I am trying my hand at writing games at night.

Hope this helps someone out there.

borngamer...

Hey, I''m only in 8th grade and in Algebra and I think I am doing fairly well. I studied really hard the last two days, and I am finally understanding other people''s code. All you have to do is practice and try hard. Eventually, It will come naturally. The only problem that I have right now is loading bitmaps. Once I get past that, The only thing to worry about is DirectInput. Don''t give up.

"Remember, I'm the monkey, and you're the cheese grater. So no fooling around."
-Grand Theft Auto, London

No, a dumbass cannot become a rich-ass. If a dumbass became a richass, this dumbass would not be able to hold onto the money.

Nobody is born a programming/biz whiz, thou must pay your dues or you will never have a fruitful programming career.

You reap what you sow!

Count me in as one of those that didn''t like school, but found it easy and coasted with good grades.

If you look at my marks from high school, it looks something like this:

grade 7 - 88%
grade 8 - 83%
grade 9 - 80%
grade 10 - 78%
grade 11 - 77%

notice the pattern? i came in as an over-achieving brainiac, and left with a sort of apathy towards school. good thing for me school was EASY, or else I would have failed bigtime, since my work ethic back then was, how shall I say, non-existant. can you say ''procrastination''?

one thing i did like though, was math. being a video game freak while growing up (god bless Nintendo), the transition from playing them to making them was natural.

anyways, the relevance of this? though i may not have been a straight-A nerd in school and college (skipped out on the last half of the degree), I fully believe in myself and my abilities. It''s all about confidence; I think I have what it takes to make a difference in the industry, and just because I don''t meet some social standard of having an expensive degree doesnt mean I can''t succeed. In the end it comes down to the person, not the degree.

See you at the top

Hey, saw everyone talking about school, and I figured I''d throw in my $0.02 about it all. My philosophy is find whatever works for u. Everybody is different from everybody else, so what works for goop, or potsticker, or me, may not work for you. Experiment with stuff to find the best balanace for you. Maybe your lack of school ability isn''t even connected to work ethic, maybe it''s how early you get up, or what you ate for breakfast ( no seriosly, It just dawned on me that my recent lack of programming energy has been tied to lack of food). I found that in school, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn''t get above certain grades ( I once had the same paper disappear after 2 rewrites, I still don''t have a good copy). Stuff happens, work hard, and keep at it. No one knows u better than u (perhaps with the exception of any religious figures u may believe in), and nothing good will come out of not trying.

Dare To Think Outside The Box
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http://www.inversestudios.com

you people suck my huge bubble has been burst and my major plans ruined