[Adan]

This is a line from a local college offering a beginners class in computer science / programming.

– “Strong analytical skills are recommended for students enrolling in this course.”

Is / are there any good books / online tutorials for analytical skills?

[Ganesh]

Unfortunately, you will not get that out of book. It’s a skill that needs to be acquired over time. Basically, it’s about how good you can solve problems logically.

Some people are naturally analytical–it’s their personality type. Spock from Star Trek would be considered the king of analytical people. Sometimes people say that analytical people overthink things or can be very anal.

There are some quick tests online that you can try to test your analytical skills, so may be start from there.

Given that, if it’s a course you are interested in then just take it. Don’t worry about how analytical you are. Practice doing some basic C programming online. The typical “Hello World” program. There are tons of ebooks here on beginning programming. Usually any beginning programming class starts out with C programming, so that would be a good start. Math skills help too. I suck at math, but I’m very good at logic, which makes up for it.

[Adelaid]

I have a couple of books on critical thinking skills and reasoning skills on my computer.

• “reasoning skills success in 20 minutes a day 2nd edition”
• “Critical thinking skills – Developing effective analysis and argument”
• “501 Challenging Logic and Reasoning Problems 2nd Edition”
• “How to Win Every Argument”
• “Critical Thinking Skills Success in 20 minutes a day”
• “Thank You for Arguing”

These are the titles of the books I have. You can look them up on Amazon most of them are downloadable online, but a couple of them aren’t available in print.

Are you sure there’s no beginner’s guides to analytical thinking.

[Adelaid]

The language I would be using in the class would be C++. And I don’t even have the math skills to be in that class. I took the most basic math class my community college could offer and failed it. When I took the entrance test for math I scored the lowest. In order to take the intro to computer science / object oriented programming class I have to at least be past high school Algebra and be in a STEM college Algebra class.

Around three years ago I took the most basic class at my community college and passed because it wasn’t word problems. Now they want word problems and a little Algebra / Geometry in the most basic math class. I’m studying on my own from a book I borrowed at the local library (“Arithmetic the easy way” – 1996 version)

[Ganesh]

I started programming when I was 8 years old. You don’t need to know Algebra to be a good programmer, but it does help.

I wouldn’t worry about “analytical skills” requirement. This is such an open ended requirement it means nothing.

I recommend you find some online tutorials about C++ and start doing some simple programming to get a handle on what programming is about and you will find out yourself what kind of analytical skills programming needs. Don’t worry if its hard at first, it took me years (15+ years) to become a decent programmer.

The basics of programming are fairly easy to pickup if you have the right book and resources to learn from.

[Fierro]

As other people have mentioned before, you can’t really learn analytical skills from a book. Sure, they might have nice pointers and special methods, but in the end you have to find your own way of doing it. That means a lot of practice!

Instead of solving something just one way, try to come up with two or more ways to do it.
Also, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. For every mistake you make you have to find a new way to solve it, brilliant!

Once you’re familiar with a bit of programming, try to solve other people’s mistakes. It’s amazing what you’ll learn if you try to apply the mindset of someone else. This won’t only make it easier to understand code examples but it will also prepare you for teamwork.

Don’t fret too much about it, though. Requirements such as ‘strong analytical skills’ might seem daunting but are usually just waffle to make their classes seem fancier.

To be honest, maths are a good plus, but not essential. I’m terrible at maths but I still came out as one of the best programmers at my college. Just think outside the box.