Ask HN: Studying Computer Science
Some time ago I decided that programming is something I enjoy doing. A few years and night school calculus courses later I got into a university computer science program on the second year of which I am now.
I found the software engineering and general computer science courses rather easy, including those that taught Python, Java and the intro C/UNIX course. What I found a bit more difficult to cue into were the more `academic' courses, e.g. those dealing with proofs of correctness, state machines, some low-level hardware courses (although putting together logic circuits was quite fun indeed), and university-level calculus. While the latter most struggle with, the computer science courses I know there should have no problems tackling, but it's almost as if a switch in my mind needs flipping, and it's too dark in the room to find it. A few of my friends have zero problems with the more rigorous courses, but are completely useless when it comes to even the most basic object-oriented design and even version control, which took a surprising amount of effort to explain.
When I first came to see the university counsellor, we parted ways with him saying "we will turn you from a coder into a computer scientist", which is precisely what I'd like to take away from post-secondary education. Is there any advice or resources you could point towards to learn about the stumbling block could be?
Thanks in advance!