csgrinds.ie

the best grinds for Ireland's worst taught subject

@

anyone can get a H1 in computer science, our country's teachers just don't put us on the best path. and who can blame them? most CS teachers are reskilled science teachers. imagine spending your whole life learning biology to the point you can teach it effectively, and then someone gives you a massive python textbook saying "here, you're also going to teach this starting in September"

there are 3 components to the LCCS course: theory, coding, project. the department of education seem to have anticipated how poorly their new subject would be taught and opted to give students 4x less content than is reasonable to cover in 2 years. while this is a terrible indictment of our education system, it also means you can pick up an easy 100 points towards whatever course you're planning on

the python can be learned easily: the LCCS python curriculum is something usually covered in 4 weeks of a CS degree, while the theory can be covered in just 2 months of focused study. the project is a good bit trickier, but is easily doable given basic familiarity with HTML, CSS and JavaScript (a language similar to Python in every way other than syntax)

with the rise of LLMs, many people may be tempted to do their project with the help of one. we strongly advise you not to. i'm not even saying that because it is academically dishonest. realistically, all students are using all means available to them to get ahead (it is on the department for not having thought about the project processes enough to prevent this). I'm saying that because
(a) one of the main purposes of the project is to learn - doing the project doubles as study
(b) there's no reason to - the LCCS project is quite simple to do, it's just not worth the potential consequences and stress
(c) building an over-reliance on AI this early in your career won't do much good for you.
In general, if you're asking an LLM to do something as simple as the LCCS project for you, there is no hope of you getting anywhere with CS (in the LC or outside it)

Approaches vary widely based on whether your school offers LCCS. if it does, that's absolutely class! pay attention to class in 5th year, but don't stress too much if you don't get everything (most LCCS teachers are best at things other than LCCS). come 6th year, come back to csgrinds.ie for focused grinds/study with an emphasis on understanding

This subject is a funny one. There aren't many past papers from which to draw conclusions regarding what sorts of questions can be asked, and the syllabus is quite vague (meaning not very exam-focused).

Chapters (these will all be hyperlinks soon): Computers and society, Computational thinking, Design and development, Abstraction, Algorithms, Computer systems, Data, Evaluation/Testing

Not everyone can afford grinds. we're not just doing this for the money, we want to see more of Ireland's talented youth reach their fullest potential. We're still working on compiling our full course notes, but once we're done you'll see them here.

contrary to popular belief, CS is a really small subject once you condense it down, so really don't stress about it too much for now