NQ Computing Student

Journey Travelled

Over the past year, I have been introduced to many new and interesting concepts and have met some nice people along the way. Thanks to this course, I have managed to find a desire to learn I thought I had lost after years spent doing a course I wasn’t enjoying and forced myself through.

The first semester had many interesting topics that I was excited to learn about such as Ethical Hacking, Game Development, and Web Development. I found them both fascinating to learn about and they helped me understand a lot more about basic computing concepts. Communications was another class that we had, it was nice to create a report and refresh and improve my English skills.

Overall, the first semester helped a lot getting me out a slump I was in education-wise, after a lot of time spent not enjoying college and the subject I was studying.

The second semester introduced me to programming for the first time, I almost instantly took to it and really fell in love with the subject, it’s something I’ve never experienced before. I think a lot of the draw was problem solving but I also find it interesting making different programs that have their own individual purpose. I will often spend a lot of time at home doing programming, a lot of the stuff unrelated to college. I owe a lot of this to Sara, my initial lecturer for most classes, her teaching style and the documentation provided really worked well for me and suited my learning style.

We were introduced to Data Security and Digital Forensics, both have been interesting to work through, and I really have developed a basic understanding of how they both work in the real world. I look forward to learning more about both in the future.

All in all, the second semester introduced me to a lot of interesting concepts, many of which I plan to look in to and learn more about over the course of the break.

In terms of skill development, I feel I have improved in many areas. Namely, my problem-solving skills - primarily thanks to my numeracy and software dev classes. I can confidently say that I am a lot more confident in my problem solving that I used to be. I also feel I have developed my study skills quite a bit, with classes such as Digital Forensics and Data Security. I had to study quite a bit of written material and managed to discover retention methods that work best for me.

I hope to one day get my degree in Computer Science, preferably in the Software Engineering area of study, but for now I am concentrating on preparing for the HNC after the break.

This year has been a great experience for me, and I hope next year can live up to it. The staff on the course have been great and the content provided by the course has given me the want to learn like never before.

After a long struggle over the past few years, I finally feel like I made a good choice and have chosen something that I can be happy learning about far into the future. I am hopeful for the first time in years, and I look forward to my life and studies.