Can I do Algo (Units 3 and 4) without doing/having any prior coding knowledge?

[AMASASNWPMAJDW]

Hello,

I am entering Year 12 next week and just want to ask if it is possible for someone (without any prior knowledge on coding) to do Algorithmic's? I have just done a 3/4 (Business Management) and have an extra subject, due to me having a clash.

I don't do Methods, but I have a very good understanding of maths. I have utterly smashed general this year, but really can't find much information on Algo.

For instance, I want to know if there is a huge workload? I would also like to know if is it a particularly difficult subject, even if you understand maths quite clearly? By the way, I will be considering doing Algorithmics through Virtual School Victoria (VSV), if that makes any difference.

Thanks to those who will respond.

[calliope]

check out the VCAA exams from previous years, the subject scales up by 5-8 marks which means it is not easy.
Good luck.

[Chessnutter]

If you were doing Algo through your school, I would say go for it, but VSV is completely terrible. It is a very hard subject, but the workload isn't obnoxiously high if you can understand the (difficult) concepts. Coding experience is helpful, not only because some SACs require code but also because it teaches you how to think about solving problems using pseudocode (handwritten code which is like a series of steps in English). If you are doing it for next year, I would recommend learning to code Python during summer as it will put you far ahead of everyone else in the class.

The maths is at a high level, but methods knowledge should be fine to get you through it. IF YOU DID NOT DO METHODS 1/2 DO NOT DO ALGO.

I did Data Analytics with VSV this year.
For the content they gave us to learn, about 75% was copied from the textbook. In the 25%, there were dozens of mistakes and the content wasn't proof read. Teachers have low respond times or don't respond at all, and they want you to contact them through a weird mix of their online messaging service and email (and we were not allowed to use their messaging service at one point).  There are no video calls, or ways to properly ask a teacher to explain an answer like in face to face teaching. They screwed up my enrolment info, meaning I was enrolled a week late. The online learning cobbled together by my normal school during COVID was levels of magnitudes better than what VSV did.

[calliope]

Algorithmics at Virtual School Victoria gets some great 40+ scores every year, look on this page for the 2017, 2018, 2019 top scorers. Like all schools each subject has a different teacher, I see that ChessNutter didn't study Algorithmics at VSV.

[Stormbreaker-X]

What does methods have to do with Algorithmics?

[calliope]

You need Methods in Algorithmics to help when studying the number of actions done by an algorithm to solve a problem, you need to be able to count them in a sophisticated way.
For example you need to be able to recognise linear, quadratic, cubic, exponential rates of growth in the number of actions related to the size of the input for the problem. There is a lot of study of these types of functions in Methods.

[Chessnutter]

Algorithmics at Virtual School Victoria gets some great 40+ scores every year, look on this page for the 2017, 2018, 2019 top scorers. Like all schools each subject has a different teacher, I see that ChessNutter didn't study Algorithmics at VSV.

I studied Algorithmics at Melbourne High School, Software Development at MHS and Data Analytics at VSV, winning the school subject prize for all three of them.

Of course VSV gets some great scores - there are lots of high achieving students who want to pursue computer science but their school doesn't offer it. The students dedicated enough to try to do a subject which isn't offered are the ones dedicated enough to study (in some cases). From my (admittedly very limited) experience, VSV isn't great at teaching content. It is, of course, entirely likely that the VSV algo teacher is better than my VSV data analytics teacher, and the course is taught far better for that subject.

What does methods have to do with Algorithmics?

You need Methods in Algorithmics to help when studying the number of actions done by an algorithm to solve a problem, you need to be able to count them in a sophisticated way.
For example you need to be able to recognise linear, quadratic, cubic, exponential rates of growth in the number of actions related to the size of the input for the problem. There is a lot of study of these types of functions in Methods.

Very true. It is also about being able to understand more formal maths syntax and difficult concepts, which is a vast proportion of Algorithmics. For example, log2(n!) < nlog2(n) for large values of n (formally, O(log(n!)) is a subset of O(nlogn).  If you struggled with methods, then you are going to bomb algo. If you haven't done methods 1 2, you probably will as well, unfortunately, unless you really put in the hard yards.

Happy to hear any other opinions

[Stormbreaker-X]

I checked the prerequisites and apparently you actually need to do methods 1/2 in order to do algorithmic.