Advice on Independent studies

[Gablar]

First of thanks for such a great forum I've been browsing for a couple of days and the information here is top grade. This is my first post.

I will give you some background and then formulate the question.I'm a Computer Science/ pure math double major student, in a small private university in Puerto Rico, which i consider the closest thing you can get to a degree factory. Most courses I've taken so far don't make it half way through the syllabus, because professor need a reasonable amount of students to pass the course so they have to go slow.

I have realized this summer in my internship how behind I am if my goal is a PHD in Computer Science. I'm a incoming Junior but I can only answer some of the discrete math questions and some of the programing questions. I have read many times in this forum the advise of concentrating on answering practice question as the best way to study. Although it seems like a very good advise, I'm having problems doing that because the gaps in my knowledge are so vast that I don't' even know were to begin in most questions.

My question is; Out of all the subjects in the test, where should I start to get good fundamentals? Let me re-phrase that, in what order would you study if you were to build your knowledge in Comp Sci? Anything I should study in parallel? Considering that I won't take the GRE until fall 08, I think I have the time to not only prepare for the GRE, but prepare for grad school.

This is very important to me since I want to go to a very good grad school, and I think considering my undergrad college, I need a good way to prove my knowledge, the GRE subject test is key. Also, I will be volunteering for research in a much bigger school close by to get some of that under my belt, that should help improve my odds.

[CalmLogic]

Computer science students generally start with discrete math. Discrete math is pretty much the foundation of computer science.

[Gablar]

Calm logic. thanks very much for your reply. I've been looking your great link collection and comparing it with the subjects of the GRE. I think I've come up with a set of lectures l that I should study. I plan to buy the textbooks for each lesson too, so I can get reference material. Do you have any suggestions about what is the best order to do these lessons?


I. SOFTWARE SYSTEMS AND METHODOLOGY — 40%

The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs


Online course with 20 video lectures with problem sets and exams. Scheme is used as the programing language


The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

Text: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (full online text), Abelson and Sussman (1996)



Object-oriented Program Design and Software Engineering



Online course with 20 video lectures with problem sets and exams. Scheme is used as the programming language
http://www.aduni.org/courses/java/index.php?view=cw



Text: Core Java 2, Volume I: Fundamentals and Volume II: Advanced Features, Hortsmann and Cornell. ( 2000)



II. COMPUTER ORGANIZATION AND ARCHITECTURE — 15%

How Computers Work



Online course with 20 video lectures with problem sets and exams.

How Computers Work



Text: Computer Organization and Design, Patterson and Hennessey. (1997)





III. THEORY AND MATHEMATICAL BACKGROUND — 40%


Discrete Mathematics:

Online Course 19 video lectures with problem sets and exams

Discrete Mathematics

Text : Discrete Mathematics and its Applications; Rosen (1998)

Algorithms:

Online course with 20 video lectures with problem sets and exams

Algorithms


Text: Introduction to Algorithms, Cormen, Rivest, Leiserson.(2001)

Theory of Computation:

Online course with 22 video lectures with problem sets and exams

Theory of Computation

Text: Introduction to the Theory of Computation, Michael Sipser. (1996)

[Gablar]

Calm logic. thanks very much for your reply. I've been looking your great link collection and comparing it with the subjects of the GRE. I think I've come up with a set of lectures l that I should study. I plan to buy the textbooks for each lesson too, so I can get reference material. Do you have any suggestions about what is the best order to do these lessons?


I. SOFTWARE SYSTEMS AND METHODOLOGY — 40%

The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs


Online course with 20 video lectures with problem sets and exams. Scheme is used as the programing language


The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

Text: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (full online text), Abelson and Sussman (1996)



Object-oriented Program Design and Software Engineering



Online course with 20 video lectures with problem sets and exams. Scheme is used as the programming language
http://www.aduni.org/courses/java/index.php?view=cw



Text: Core Java 2, Volume I: Fundamentals and Volume II: Advanced Features, Hortsmann and Cornell. ( 2000)



II. COMPUTER ORGANIZATION AND ARCHITECTURE — 15%

How Computers Work



Online course with 20 video lectures with problem sets and exams.

How Computers Work



Text: Computer Organization and Design, Patterson and Hennessey. (1997)





III. THEORY AND MATHEMATICAL BACKGROUND — 40%


Discrete Mathematics:

Online Course 19 video lectures with problem sets and exams

Discrete Mathematics

Text : Discrete Mathematics and its Applications; Rosen (1998)

Algorithms:

Online course with 20 video lectures with problem sets and exams

Algorithms


Text: Introduction to Algorithms, Cormen, Rivest, Leiserson.(2001)

Theory of Computation:

Online course with 22 video lectures with problem sets and exams

Theory of Computation

Text: Introduction to the Theory of Computation, Michael Sipser. (1996)

[CalmLogic]

Text : Discrete Mathematics and its Applications; Rosen (1998)

Text: Introduction to Algorithms, Cormen, Rivest, Leiserson.(2001)

Text: Introduction to the Theory of Computation, Michael Sipser. (1996)

The three books above are great!!!!!! You really can't get better books on the subject and they are definitely the most popular books. IMHO, the most valuable book of the three is Rosen's textbook on discrete math since discrete math is, again, the foundation of computer science.

I would start off with discrete math. What I did was I got an older version of Rosen's discrete textbook. I also got the corresponding student solutions guide. I didn't spend too much time with the textbook, however. I just learned what I needed to in order to answer some of the questions in the ETS booklets.

Regarding video lectures, the best course at ADUni.org is the Theory of Computation class. I found the other courses less helpful.

Some other good lectures:

Lectures on Data Structures & Graph Theory

Originally Posted by Gablar

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (full online text), Abelson and Sussman (1996)

I've looked at "Structure & Interpretation of Computer Programs" before. IMHO, that book is not worth the time for studying for the GRECS since it uses Scheme/Lisp to help explain topics. For most people, including myself, that would only make the material more difficult to understand, especially since Scheme/Lisp is not even mentioned in any of the previously published ETS questions.

Core Java 2, Volume I: Fundamentals and Volume II: Advanced Features, Hortsmann and Cornell. ( 2000)

I wouldn't spend any time reading a Java book or any book on a specific programming language. What you need the most regarding computer languages is a book on the theory of programming languages.

For example, the textbook I use for programming language theory:

Programming Language Pragmatics

Text: Computer Organization and Design, Patterson and Hennessey. (1997)

That is certainly the most popular book on computer architecture, so it's worth getting an old copy. However, no single textbook has really stood above the rest for me for computer architecture.

Also, for computer architecture, no online course has really been helpful to me. Instead, I've relied on the Schaum's Outline on computer architecture , old editions of various textbooks, Wikipedia articles, and GRECS study guides. Some people also like MIT's OpenCourseWare.

[ananddev]

Lectures on Data Structures & Graph Theory

Hi I am unable to view the videos on this site. Have they been taken down or have been moved to another location.
thanks,
Dev

[CalmLogic]

Yeah, it looks like they are gone for good. I also tried using the Internet archive (archive.org) and the weren't there either. I sent an e-mail to the professor, who already has replied and says he will look into the issue. Anyway, I will post back if the videos go back online.

However, as a substitute:

MIT OpenCourseWare | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | 6.046J Introduction to Algorithms (SMA 5503), Fall 2005 | Lecture Notes

The videos and lecture notes at the above MIT link include some specific lectures on graph theory.

BTW, the video course below that Gablar mentioned for helping one understand computer architecture seems pretty good:

Originally Posted by Gablar

II. COMPUTER ORGANIZATION AND ARCHITECTURE — 15%

How Computers Work

Online course with 20 video lectures with problem sets and exams.

How Computers Work

[CalmLogic]

The videos I mentioned before are back online:

Lectures on Data Structures & Graph Theory

BTW, the best success story in this forum for independent learning in computer science was by KayKay. She was accepted by Columbia University. Some of her advice, which you may have already read:

Originally Posted by KayKay

When I started preparing for subject GRE, it was not an easy task. The amount of the course material (which I would be reading for the first time !!), the immense syllabus and competition with the guys who already had good knowledge of the subject... simply overwhelmed me. Many a times I felt like giving up. During initial periods, when I saw Earthlings discussing advanced topics and I couldn't understand much of it, I used to have a sinking feeling. I had no idea if I would be able to finish up the study material ever and would be able to take the exam confidently. But I kept studing at a steady pace. I picked up the Brilliant Tutorial's GATE study material along with other books (another post from me... -> (study material for a person with a Non-CS background !!)). It helped me a lot as it covers most of the topics for subject GRE and has good amount of question and answer sections. By the time the test date arrived, I had not been able to cover all of the topics and was mostly unprepared. But I took the test confidently.

http://www.urch.com/forums/gre-compu...ckgrounds.html

Though she refers to the "Brilliant Tutorials" and other GATE study booklets which are only available in India, many sample GATE questions are available online, as mentioned in my signature below. I would also point out that the GATE Information Technology exam (a newer exam), not just the GATE Computer Science exam, provides computer science questions.

(KayKay didn't mention GRE CS study guides like "Titanium Bits" and older ETS practice exam booklets, so she may not have known about them.)

[ananddev]

thanks a lot. Yes they are online now.

[CalmLogic]

Some video courses from Berkeley that are very good:

UC Berkeley Webcasts | Video and Podcasts: CS 162 (Operating Systems and Systems Programming)
UC Berkeley Webcasts | Video and Podcasts: CS 61C (Machine Structures - the professor provides the best explanations for virtual memory I have seen yet)
UC Berkeley Webcasts | Video and Podcasts: CS 61B (Data Structures)

Regarding the videos I mentioned before that are back online, there are lecture slides that are helpful for anyone watching the corresponding videos, which are grainy and boring enough to warrant fast-forwarding. Of course, using such lecture slides is usually more efficient than using videos to review material one already knows.